H.B. 472 Division of Licensing and Background Checks Amendments: transcript

House Health and Human Services Committee, Feb 12, 2026

1. Committee chair1:35:21

   on house bill 4 72. All right, go ahead.

2. Rep. Anthony E. Loubet1:35:48

   Thank you Mr. Chair and thank you members of the committee. Um, with me today is Shannon Toman Black, uh, director for division of licensing and background checks at DHHS. She'll be helping me with the presentation and by helping me, she'll be doing 99% of the presentation. Um, sounds a lot like my marriage, but, uh, anyways, um, so, uh, with this bill there is a first sub online, and so we will be presenting to that. And with that, I'll turn the time over to Shannon.

3. Shannon Tolman-Black, Director, Division of Licensing and Background Checks, DHHS1:36:19

   Great. Thank you. Um, hello. Thank you for having me here today. My name is Shannon Toman Black. I am the director for the division of Licensing and background checks with the Department of Health and Human Services. Um, just to a few points of this bill, this bill is mainly a structural renumbering for operational clarity. As you many of you'll remember is when Department of Health and Department of Human Human Services merged, we went and, and worked to put a lot of code, uh, together under the same, um, under the same statute. And in that a piece of code was inadvertently put, um, not numbered on its own, which needed to be. And so this just corrects that to outline the creation and responsibilities of the division of licensing and background checks in its own, um, in its own numbering. And it ensures that it is clear what our, um, what our statutory authority is, uh, and what we the, um, what the legislature has in its wisdom, um, allowed us to do within that authority. The bigger part of this that is not the structural renumbering is a clarification on what it means to be associated with a licensee. It provides a more precise definition. Um, in the past, the definition and as it currently is now is quite vague and can apply to anyone from an owner to someone who takes out the trash. Um, and it was too broad. It made it difficult to implement and it would, would encompass volunteers, anyone. So this standard focuses on individuals that hold a position of management control or significant influence over operations or compliance. And this is important because in statute individuals, if you are associated with a license that gets revoked, there are some limitations that are placed on you as far as working in that field for a certain amount of time. And we do not want to stand in the way of individuals who are not decision makers in businesses from moving on and being able to have gainful employment and do their jobs. Um, and then there is an additional piece that was added in sub one, and this is also just some clarifying language around our day treatment providers, more specifically to those who, um, offer a BA services. When this statute and our authority was first written, um, business worked in a different way. Those services were almost always provided at a facility or an office. And as we have now worked, um, to, and business has gone and modernized and we've learned better in different ways to offer services, we now have these service providers that will go into an individual's home. And this just clarifies that regardless of where you provide these services, that it does fall under a day treatment license. And we as, uh, always wanna be clear as possible so that people understand their expectations. Um, that is the bill in brief, and I am happy to answer any questions you might have.

4. Committee chair1:39:33

   Awesome. Thank you. Um, we will go to the committee for discussion on the bill, if that concludes your presentation representative.

5. Shannon Tolman-Black, Director, Division of Licensing and Background Checks, DHHS1:39:41speaker not certain

   Yes, that concludes my presentation. Thank you to the committee representative. It, Thank you very much.

6. Unknown speaker1:39:46speaker not certain

   Uh, in relation to the, um, associated with the licensee language here, can you just give a real world example of how the currently vague, um, definition, uh, is a problem and what your clarification, uh, as proposed will do to remedy it?

7. Shannon Tolman-Black, Director, Division of Licensing and Background Checks, DHHS1:40:02

   Absolutely. Thank you. So in the case, we may have to revoke a license, let's say from, um, a human service provider that, uh, we'll say an a, BA provider. And we've had to revoke a license. Um, right now with the language, technically anyone who worked for that provider would not be able to work in that field or ask for licensure for a, um, a period of time of, of, I think five years. And so that, that is where it looks. Now, if we were to go just by how it is written and, um, this would mean that it identifies individuals who hold the position of management control or significant influence. So those that really have a hand in how the, the licensed program or provider, how they're being run, which is where we really associate when we're at a place where a license needs to be revoked.

8. Unknown speaker1:41:07speaker not certain

   Sounds like something that we should definitely fix. Um, is there anything administratively or through internal policy that could be changed to, to put this into effect? Or does this need to be legislative?

9. Shannon Tolman-Black, Director, Division of Licensing and Background Checks, DHHS1:41:17

   Thank you. It's a great question. Um, because of how it is defined in the statute, we have been advised that we could do some tweaks in rule, but it would always be open to question, which can, can change depending on, um, the times.

10. Unknown speaker1:41:36speaker not certain

    Yeah. Thank you.

11. Committee chair1:41:39

    Any other clarifying questions or discussion from the committee? I am not seeing anyone. We will move to public comment. Is there anyone in the public that would like to speak to this bill? Not seeing any. Do we have any on online? Nothing online. So we'll close public comment and return to the committee for discussion on the bill or action. Um, representative gracious, sorry. Slow.

12. Rep. Gricius1:42:14

    No, you're good. You're giving me time to check and see if there's a substitute. Do you Yeah. Sub, sub one, correct. We motion to adopt the first substitute

13. Committee chair1:42:23

    That motion's in order, um, to the bill sponsor.

14. Rep. Anthony E. Loubet1:42:28

    I appreciate, um, yeah, yeah. I appreciate the motion.

15. Committee chair1:42:31

    Okay. To the committee, not seeing any back to the maker of the motion waive. Okay. The motion is to adopt sub one. All in favor say aye.

16. Unknown speaker1:42:41speaker not certain

    Aye. Aye.

17. Committee chair1:42:46

    Representative Hall can are are you line?

18. Rep. Katy Hall1:42:49

    Thank you representative. Aye.

19. Committee chair1:42:51

    Okay, so that is, that Motion carries. Um, representative gracious, did you want to continue?

20. Rep. Gricius1:42:58

    Yeah, I'd move that we favorably recommend House Bill 4 72 first sub.

21. Committee chair1:43:03

    That motion is in order. Um, the motion is that we favorably recommend House Bill 4 72 first sub to the bill sponsor on the motion.

22. Rep. Anthony E. Loubet1:43:14

    Uh, I appreciate the, the motion. I mean, this is a bill that working with DHHS would help make some clarifications and do some cleanup. Uh, so I would appreciate the committee support.

23. Committee chair1:43:25

    Thank you. And to the committee, back to the maker of the motion waive, we'll place that motion. The motion is to favorably recommend House Bill 4 72 sub one. All in favor say aye.

24. Unknown speaker1:43:38speaker not certain

    Aye. Waiting

25. Committee chair1:43:41

    for Representative Hall if she's still there. Aye. Okay. That is unanimous. Thank you for coming. Congratulations. Alright, thank you Mr. Chair. Thank you committee members. Alrighty, we will keep on moving here. We will go to, um,

Senate Business and Labor Committee, Feb 27, 2026

House floor, Feb 23, 2026

1. Speaker (presiding)55:22

   Per substitute house Bill 4 72 division of licensing and background checks, amendments by Representative Loubet. This bill was served in Health and Human Services with the vote. Seven zero Representative Loubet.

2. Rep. Anthony E. Loubet55:35

   Thank you Mr. Speaker. Pro Tem.

3. Rep. Anthony E. Loubet55:37

   Um, several years ago we, uh, combined our Department of Health, uh, services and our Department of Health services. So we have the Department of Health and Human Services. Uh, in that process we also took two bodies of code and merged them together. And in that process, uh, there was a lot of renumbering and some sections, uh, were not carried over. So this bill does a little bit of cleanup where it's going through, uh, any sections that may have been missed or being added. Um, another thing that this bill is doing is that it is refining the definition of associated with the licensee. Uh, the current definition is very broad and it's includes everybody who's working at a provider. What this is doing is narrowing the description to those that hold, uh, officer or, uh, positions of influence within the company. The purpose for this is that when somebody is trying, uh, when, when a entity loses their license, the concern is that you might have some people that were the cause of that then now are going and opening up another entity and now they're doing the exact same thing. And so, uh, we're trying to, uh, give some, some tools to DHHS to be able to, um, monitor that and be able to hold those that are responsible for some of these entities losing their license to not be able to go out there and then start their own. Um, and with that, that concludes my presentation.

4. Speaker (presiding)57:03

   Thank you Representative Loubet. Discussion to the bill.

5. Rep. Anthony E. Loubet57:07

   See none. Representative Loubet for summation, I Waive. Summation is waived.

6. Speaker (presiding)57:11

   Voting is open on first substitute house bill 4 72. Division of licensing and background check amendments, seeing all present having voted voting will be closed. First substitute house bill 4 72, having received 67 yay votes and zero nay votes passes the house and will be transmitted to the Senate for its consideration matter. Meeting clerk

Senate floor, Mar 4, 2026

1. Sen. Derrin R. Owens20:16

   House Bill 4 7 72 Strengthens Utah's ability to remove bad actors from the professional Health and Human services, uh, department, particularly those serving individuals with disabilities. When a provider's license is revoked for serious violations, this bill ensures that the individual who actually controlled or influenced the provider cannot continue operating the same services under a different name or ownership structure or through a close family. So associate the goal goal of this bill is clear those responsible for misconduct cannot sidestep enforcement and continue serving our vulnerable clients. That's what the bill does present with that. I would call the question.

2. Senate presiding officer21:02

   Thank you for the presentation again. Did you, uh, call the question? Yes sir. Thank you. And the question is, shall first Subject to House Bill four seventy two pass. Roll call vote. Senator Vickers Spery Aye. Lein Rammer Bus Colmore. Escamilla. Aye. Fillmore Grover Fillmore Aye. Harper Hankins Aye. Ipsen Johnson Juab McKay Mikel Milner Musselman Owens Aye. Pitcher Plum Rebi Sandal Stevenson Stratton Bickers Weiler Wilson Winterton. President Adams Stevenson. Aye. Stevenson, Senator Stevenson First substitute House Bill 4 72 Having received 26 votes. Votes zero nay votes, three being absent passes his body will be signed by the President and returned to the house for the signature. The speaker House Bill 5 5 12 House Bill five 12 Land Surveyors licensing amendments. Senator Vickers. Senator Vickers.