HB494 Alabama 2011 Session

Updated Feb 27, 2026

Low Interest

Summary

Primary Sponsor: Ron Johnson
Republican
Session: Regular Session 2011
Title: Medicaid Agency, procurement procedures, exempt for health professionals for task forces, boards, committees, Sec. 41-16-72 am'd.
Summary: HB494 would exempt Medicaid Agency contracts with health professionals for service on agency task forces, boards, or committees from the state's standard professional-services procurement rules.
What This Bill Does
If enacted, it keeps the normal procurement rules for most professional services, but removes the standard selection process for certain health-professional contracts used only on Medicaid Agency task forces or committees. It also outlines how other professional services (like physicians, architects, engineers) are normally selected, including lists, qualifications, fee considerations, and approvals. The bill preserves emergency bypasses, notices to providers, and diversity requirements, and specifies that the Medicaid exemption applies only to those health-professional contracts used for task-forces-related work.

Who It Affects
Group 1: Alabama Medicaid Agency and health professionals who provide services on the agency's task forces, boards, or committees, who would be exempt from the standard professional-services procurement process for these specific contracts.
Group 2: Other state entities and health or non-health professional service providers who would continue to follow the standard procurement rules for professional services (including selection from official lists, qualification-based criteria, and fee considerations).

Key Provisions
Exemption for Medicaid Agency: contracts with physicians, pharmacists, dentists, optometrists, opticians, nurses, and other health professionals involving only service on agency task forces, boards, or committees are not subject to the article's standard procurement process.
Physician selection: physicians providing medical services to the state must be chosen from a list maintained by the Alabama Medical Licensure Commission, with selection based on skill and fees; fees are negotiated and approved by the Governor in consultation with the Attorney General.
Other professionals: architects, engineers, landscape architects, land surveyors, geoscience, and similar professionals are selected through qualification-based processes with criteria such as expertise, resources, past performance, local familiarity, and project management; fees are considered and negotiated, with governing approvals.
Finance lists and procurement: the Director of Finance maintains lists of other professional providers; selections are made via requests for proposals (RFPs) with price considerations, and written justification required if a chosen proposal is more expensive than the lowest qualified one by more than 10%.
Contract scope: contracts cover only the professional-services portion; goods related to the contract are purchased separately.
Emergency provisions: in declared emergencies, the needed professional services may be procured from any qualified provider without following the standard process.
Exemptions from the article: the Legislature, the Alabama State Port Authority, and colleges/universities are not subject to these procurement provisions; the State Department of Education has limited subject to statewide computer-technology services, and local boards may be governed by other laws if intervened in financial operations.
Diversity and notices: requests for proposals must be sent to all qualified providers without racial discrimination, and lists must seek racial and ethnic diversity.

AI-generated summary using openai/gpt-5-nano on Feb 24, 2026. May contain errors — refer to the official bill text for accuracy.
Subjects: Medicaid Agency