CVRA BOARD MEETING MINUTES UOVC Training Room March 14, 2017 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Dave Fowers Tisha Littlewood Patti Jensen Sandi Johnson Lori Maroney Chad Miller

Brooks Keeshin, M.D. Pauli Romine Susana Salgado

Chet Loftis Cameron Searle Lana Taylor Shane Minor Val Torres Dana Thomas Julee Smith Melanie Scarlet Connie Wettlaufer Gary Scheller

Chet Loftis convened the meeting at 2:00 p.m.

1. Approval of the December 13, 2016 Meeting Minutes A motion was made by Julee Smith, seconded by Shane Minor, to approve December 13, 2016 minutes as written. Motion passed.

2. Financial Update Gary Scheller A. Compensation Program Gary provided a handout to the Board with detailed information on the state of the CVR Trust Fund from July 1, 2016 to February 28, 2017. Restitution collection is expected to increase. There has been a 15% drop in the surcharge funds collected this year, a trend Gary thinks will continue. UOVC currently receives 35% of the surcharge funds collected. The surcharge is UOVC’s primary source of income. Two things that are contributing to the surcharge decrease are the increase in the number of entities sharing the funds and the judges’ hesitancy to order fines and fees. This is definitely an issue that UOVC will watch closely. The revenues and expenditures for the time period shown on the handout are very close dollar for dollar, and Gary said UOVC will watch this very closely also. In the past, there has typically been a buffer, but that has been eliminated of late. UOVC has rebuilt the trust fund balance to $2.2 million, but Gary forecast a decrease of approximately $500,000 before the end of FY17. In response to questions from Chet, Gary explained the trust fund is not an appropriation but rather a restricted revenue account that the Legislature might look at as an appropriation. At this point, Gary views the income as sufficient, but the concern now is the reduction in the surcharge allocations. Over the last few years it has become clear that the surcharge is not going to be sufficient to sustain the fund.

Sandi said the surcharge comes from fines in the criminal justice system. Judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys, especially with the new Justice Reinvestment Initiative, all view the only purpose of fines to be a financial punishment to the offenders. In the new JRI you do not punish anyone. She suggested developing and providing education to judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys regarding how the collection of fines and fees affects victims. If they understood that the fines and fees were not just a punishment to the offender, the judges might order them more often and the prosecutors might ask for them at trials. Examples of possible trainings could be a presentation at the Utah Prosecution Council’s Legislative Case Law Update Conference or at the annual judges’ conference. An effort should be made to continually educate all the players as to the importance of these fines and surcharges. CVRA Board Meeting March 14, 2017 Page 2

B. Exploring VOCA Assistance Grants Gary and Christine are exploring new ideas that could be funded utilizing the VOCA Assistance Grant funds. One of the concepts they are considering is a program that would elevate the quality of treatment care using evidence based practices for treatment that is supported by research and literature. The purpose would be to raise the standard of treatment mental health therapists offer for victims of child sexual abuse, rape or domestic violence. Those providing the higher standards of treatment might be paid at a higher rate. Christine came up with an idea of creating Pilot Programs for specialized treatment that could be funded with VOCA dollars and not compensation dollars. Such programs could be studied to see what savings they could provide for the compensation program, evaluate treatment costs and learn how the specialized treatment affected the recovery of the victims. Christine has reached out to The Children’s Center, a non-profit agency that specializes in the type of treatment that UOVC wants to foster and encourage others to engage in. VOCA Victim Assistance grants require direct pay, the victim does not use insurance first like the compensation program requires, but these Pilot Programs could still give important information on offsetting mental health costs.

3. Proposed Rule Changes Gary Scheller Proposed rule changes to Rule 270-1-2, R270-1-5, R270-1-18 and R270-1-23 were presented to the Board for review.

Gary explained that during a recent internal audit of UOVC payment practices, it was discovered that staff was reimbursing mental health providers at a higher rate per hour than the current rule allows. When the DSM changed, providers started billing with a CPT code that allowed for $87.50 per session. The claims analysts were reimbursing based upon the code and not the $70.00 per hour the current rule allows. The rule would have to be amended or UOVC would have to follow the language of the rule. This proposed rule change led to lengthy discussion on what constitutes a session and an hour and how they should be defined in the language of the rule. Melanie said the purpose of the rule change was to have sessions and hours line up so they were clearly defined in the rules. The Board decided that for processing procedures the interpretation of the current rule should be an hour is 60 minutes for billing purposes and a session is a visit for the purpose of calculating a victim’s number of sessions.

Language was added to the prescription and over-the-counter medication rule that states the office shall pay the amount that would be paid by PEHP for prescription medications dispensed by a pharmacy, not including those in R270-1-23.

The amount of the percentage paid for eligible hospital services and supplies would be changed to 60% for the Sexual Assault Forensic Examination program in order to be in line with the current percentage for the compensation claims, and language would be added regarding prescription medications.

A motion was made by Sandi Johnson, seconded by Shane Minor, to adopt the changes as proposed to R270-1-18 and R270-1-23 and the addition of the definition for PEHP in R270-1-2 and to make no other changes. Motion passed.

4. Closed Meeting for the Review of Subrogation Claims Susana Salgado The meeting was not closed because Susana stated she had no claims that needed to be reviewed by the Board. Susana reported that claim numbers 1038642 and 1039970 had been settled. There are currently 57 claims pending settlement.

The next meeting is scheduled for June 13, 2017.