Here's a list of Arkansas laws going into effect on January 1
Between reducing barriers for healthcare providers to requiring certain inmates to serve 100% of their sentence, a few laws will go into effect on Jan. 1.
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While not many laws go into effect in the new year due to the Arkansas legislative session's off year in 2024, a few bills filed during the 2023 session set the stage for some regulations to begin starting on Jan. 1, 2025.
Legislative changes— especially comprehensive reforms like the LEARNS Act and the Protect Arkansas Act that were passed in 2023— often enact phased effective dates to allow for a gradual shift, giving departments or organizations time to prepare for the new requirements.
So it's not farfetched that parts of those pieces of legislation still have a few subsections that go into effect nearly two years after they're signed into law.
The LEARNS Act was Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders's flagship legislation focusing on education policy, and it didn't go without its share of opposition. That being said, the part of LEARNS going into effect in January is unlikely to reignite the controversy that surrounded its initial rollout.
Department of Education to establish a workforce app LEARNS (Act 237)
By January 2025, the Arkansas Department of Education (ADE) has to develop and maintain a mobile phone app aimed at helping potential job seekers.
The LEARNS Act specifies the plan for the app to show available jobs by location, list the training requirements for those jobs, and show where necessary training or certifications are to qualify for those positions.
Another goal of the app is to make it easier for potential employees to access training and career growth.
The application is also supposed to include projections for employment growth and decline, a balance of supply and demand for workers, and outcomes of workforce programs.
Reducing administrative delays in healthcare system Act 575
In an effort to streamline efficiency in the state's healthcare system, a subsection of Act 575 incentivizes Medicaid-managed care programs to be exempt from certain regulations by reducing (or completely removing) the need for healthcare providers to get prior authorization.
By Jan. 1, 2025, organizations a part of Arkansas's Medicaid-managed care programs must introduce a system that would either significantly reduce the need for prior authorizations or eliminate the step entirely. If these programs are able to do so, other administrative regulations won't apply to them.
Prior authorizations are approvals required by insurance or Medicaid programs before the actual healthcare services can actually be provided to patients.
The law primarily impacts Medicaid-managed care programs, the Arkansas Health and Opportunity for Me Program, and qualified health plans under the Affordable Care Act purchased on the Arkansas Health Insurance Marketplace. These programs provide healthcare to Arkansas residents, particularly those with lower incomes or who may struggle to afford health insurance.
According to the text of the law, any program aiming to reduce prior authorizations must submit its plan to the Arkansas Insurance Department for review and approval from the Legislative Council.
Providers who have a 90% or higher approval rate for specific healthcare services are exempt from prior authorizations, and therefore are incentivized to reduce delays in treatment with the new legislation.
For more specifics on the law itself, you can read it in full here.
Inmates with harsh felonies can't be released early Protect Arkansas Act (Act 659)
People who commit a severe violent crime and are convicted after 2024 will have to serve 100% of the time handed down in their sentence. Inmates convicted of those serious crimes won't have a chance of early release for good behavior.
Lawmakers and Gov. Sanders say this part of the Protect Arkansas Act aims to keep criminals convicted of severe crimes in custody for public safety.
Here's a breakdown of felonies ineligible for early release:
- Capital murder
- First-degree murder
- Kidnapping (Class Y Felony)
- Aggravated robbery
- Rape
- Trafficking of persons
- Causing a catastrophe
- Aggravated residential burglary (if a Class Y felony)
- Treason
- Fleeing (if Class B felony)
- Possession of firearms by certain persons (if Class B felony)
- Engaging children in sexually explicit conduct for use in visual or print medium
- Pandering or possessing visual or print medium depicting sexually explicit conduct involving a child
- Transportation of minors for prohibited sexual conduct
- Internet stalking of a child
- Sexually grooming a child
- Producing, directing, or promoting a sexual performance by a child
- Computer exploitation of a child
A second category of felony charges are qualified as "restricted release felonies" where anyone convicted of those crimes must serve at least 85% of their sentence before being eligible for release.
List of restricted release felonies:
- Second-degree murder
- Manslaughter
- Negligent homicide
- Encouraging the suicide of another person
- Kidnapping (if Class B felony)
- First-degree battery
- Terroristic act
- Sexual indecency with a child
- Sexual extortion
- Exposing another person to HIV
- First-degree sexual assault
- Unlawful female genital mutilation of a minor
- Voyeurism
- and several others.
To read the full list of convictions labeled as restrict release felonies, you can read the full act here.