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. Enforcement of Cases Where Long Term Care Facilities Report to the State Allegations of Relatives Misusing Patient’s Funds (John McDermott)
6. 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)
7. Status of Advance Directives (Len Howard)
8. Effective Tax Policy for End-of-Life Care, Including Hospice ( Len Howard)
9. Immunity for End-of-Life Care Decisions (Len Howard)
10. State Assistance for EPEC Training (Len Howard)

1. Other Initiatives

1. Unannounced Visits of Care Homes (John McDermott)
2. Unlicensed Care Homes
3. Physician Education on Reporting Elder Abuse and Neglect (Len Howard)
4. Reducing Workload of Care Providers
5. Palliative Care
6. Thanetologists/End-of-Life Angels
7. Appeals Process in DOH and DHS When Elder Abuse & Neglect is Alleged (Helen Yoshimi and Linda Chun)

(Minutes of October 13, 1999 meeting attached)

TO RSVP OR FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CALL THE 586-6130 (SENATOR CHUN OAKLAND’S OFFICE) OR 586-6050 (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, September 13, 1999

Senator Suzanne Chun Oakland, Chair

Senator Chun Oakland called the meeting of the Elder Abuse and Fraud Task Force to order at 9:10 a.m. on Wednesday, September 13, 1999, in conference room 229 of the State Capitol.

1. Naomi Fujimoto is working on draft legislation for 2000 with DCCA, relating to the definition of reverse mortgage in the bill passed in the 1999 session. A draft will be presented at the next meeting.
2. Lehua McColgan is working on draft legislation on bonding and registration of telemarkerters for the 2000 session. A draft will be presented at the next meeting.
3. Senator Chun Oakland circulated a draft bill creating a special fund where portions of medicaid fraud recovery can go towards elder abuse, neglect and financial exploitation initiatives. Task Force members will provide comments at the next meeting.
4. Dewey Kim’s office is still working on draft legislation suggesting HRS 905 amendments to clearly define certain behavior against another person as 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 mental state where the patient did not know what was going on.

Minute, August 11, 1999 Meeting

Page 2 of 2

5. The Governor’s Elder Abuse and Neglect Commission will deal with 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 and Naomi Fujimoto will work on legislation 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’s office is working on legislation 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. Representative Marilyn Lee said there is a procedure for the 1^st 24 hours in the emergency room.
8. Discussion on effective tax policies for end-of-life care; a status update on efforts in advanced directives being honored possible statute changes to increase compliance and decrease compliance and decrease concerns of medical professionals; and funds for EPEC training were deferred.
9. Discussion regarding unannounced visits for the adult residential care homes shall be discussed in more depth at a future meeting.

Kevin Sypniewski from Assist Guide did a power point presentation on a computerized service that could and is providing information on adult residential care homes, nursing homes and other long term care services to consumers, providers and others in Hawai'i.

DHS and DOH both have appeals processes relating to adult residential care providers and their clients. Information was passed out.

Wednesday, December 15, 1999 from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. at the State Capitol Building, Conference room 229.

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

Respectfully submitted,

Suzanne Chun Oakland

State Senator