THE SENATE

THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

THE TWENTIETH LEGISLATURE

INTERIM SESSION OF 1999

Senator Suzanne Chun Oakland, Chair

COMMITTEE ON HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Representative Dennis Arakaki, Chair

COMMITTEE ON HUMAN SERVICES AND HOUSING

Meeting Notice

For

AGENDA

1. Welcome and Introductions
2. Review of Draft Legislation for the 2000 Session

1. Reverse Mortgage Definition (Naomi Fujimoto)
2. Telemarketing Fraud (Lehua McColgan)
3. Special Fund for Elder Abuse, Neglect and Financial Exploitation

(Senator Chun Oakland)

4. Amend HRS 905 – Creating Penalties for Certain Behavior Done Against Certain Persons (Dewey Kim)
5. Amend Theft Statute, Relating to Relatives Frauding Other Relatives (Dewey Kim)
6. Enforcement of Cases Where Long Term Care Facilities Report to the State Allegations of Relatives Misusing Patient’s Funds (John McDermott)
7. Assault by Omission, the Need for a Review Process When Patient Sent to an Emergency Room Who is Severely Dehydrated, Malnourished and/or has an Extensive Decubitis Condition (Dewey Kim, Len Howard)
8. Status of Advance Directives (Len Howard)
9. Effective Tax Policy for End-of-Life Care, Including Hospice ( Len Howard)
10. Immunity for End-of-Life Care Decisions (Len Howard)
11. State Assistance for EPEC Training (Len Howard)

1. Other Initiatives

1. Computerize List of Licensed Adult Residential Care Homes & Vacancy Numbers (Sharon Ogawa, Kevin Sypniewski)
2. Unannounced Visits of Care Homes (John McDermott)
3. Unlicensed Care Homes
4. Physician Education on Reporting Elder Abuse and Neglect (Len Howard)
5. Reducing Workload of Care Providers
6. Palliative Care
7. Thanetologists/End-of-Life Angels
8. Appeals Process in DOH and DHS When Elder Abuse & Neglect is Alleged (Helen Yoshimi and Linda Chun)

(Minutes of August 11, 1999 meeting attached)

TO RSVP OR FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CALL THE 586-6130 (SENATOR CHUN OAKLAND’S OFFICE) OR 586-6150 (REP. DENNIS ARAKAKI’S)

THE SENATE

THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

THE TWENTIETH LEGISLATURE

INTERIM SESSION OF 1999

MINUTES OF THE

edler aBuse and fraud task force

Wednesday, August 11, 1999

Senator Suzanne Chun Oakland, Chair

Senator Chun Oakland called the meeting of the Elder Abuse and Fraud Task Force to order at 9:05 a.m. on Wednesday, August 11, in conference room 229 of the State Capitol.

Many concerns were discussed by members of the Task Force that may be considered for introduction in the 2000 Legislative Session.

1. Naomi Fujimoto indicated that the definition of reverse mortgage in the bill passed in the 1999 session must be modified to address concerns of elderly.
2. Lehua McColgan inidcated that issues of bonding and registration of telemarketers needs to be considered next session. The telemarketing fraud bill passed in the 1999 session did not include these provisions.
3. Senator Chun Oakland indicated that she will draft bill creating a special fund where portions of medicaid fraud recovery as a result of the Attorney General’s office efforts can go towards elder abuse, neglect and financial exploitation initiatives. This was suggested at last quarter’s meeting by Dewey Kim

Elder Abuse & Fraud Task Force

Minute, August 11, 1999 Meeting

Page 2 of 3

4. Dewey Kim suggested that HRS 905 may need to be amended to clearly define certain behavior against another person being a misdemeanor. An example being the patient in a nursing facility having a dirty diaper placed on their face and the judge determining that nothing could be found illegal because the patient was in a state where the patient did not know what was going on.

5. Dewey Kim suggested modifying the theft statute to address relatives stealing from other relatives. An example being a relative misappropriating funds from pension or social security of their relative.
6. John McDermott added that statutory changes need to be considered to address the problem where DHS, Adult Protection, is not authorized to take cases if family members or relatives misuse funds of another person.
7. Dewey Kim and Len Howard indicated that there needs to be statutory language to address assault by omission cases. Presently, if a person is brought to an emergency room, a death that occurs there is considered an attended death and no autopsy is done. There may be a need to have a reviewing mechanism for emergency room cases, especially when severe dehydration, decubitis or malnutrition is present.
8. Len Howard suggested the creation of an effective tax policy be put in place for end-of-life care.
9. Len Howard said that advanced directive are not being honored. Statute changes need to be made to increase compliance and decrease concerns of medical professionals.
10. John McDermott wanted to revisit unannounced visits for the adult residential care homes.
11. Len Howard indicated that funds need to be invested in EPEC training.

There were other concerns raised that may not require legislative action, but nevertheless needs to be worked on.

1. Educating physicians to recognize and report any suspected abuse and neglect. (Len Howard)
2. Unlicensed care homes.
3. Workload of care providers needs to be reduced.

Elder Abuse & Fraud Task Force

Minute, August 11, 1999 Meeting

Page 3 of 3

4. Computerized information regarding licensed adult care homes, vacancy rate, etc. (Sharon Ogawa) Kevin Sypniewski from Assist Guide will be contacted to attend the next meeting.

1. DHS/DOH both have appeals process that need to be reviewed. Concern that adult residential care providers have clients taken out of their home and not notified of reasons why this was done and not given a chance to rebut allegations of abuse
2. Need to create more formal end-of-live care training (Len Howard)
3. Palliative care (Naomi Fujimoto)

Wednesday, October 13, 1999 from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m. at the State Capitol Building, Conference room 229.

The meeting was adjourned at 11:10 a.m.