STAND. COM. REP. NO.801

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2001

RE: S.B. No. 1534

S.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2001

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 1534 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO LONG-TERM CARE,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to require the State, in addressing long-term care issues, to adopt certain general principles as a matter of state policy.

Specifically, these include:

(1) Reducing fragmentation;

(2) Creating a consumer-centered system;

(3) Expanding home- and community-based services;

(4) Promoting personal responsibility; and

(5) Limiting long-term care expenditures.

Upon further consideration, your Committee has amended this bill by deleting its contents and by incorporating the contents of S.B. No. 1534, Proposed S.D. 1, which implements the principles above by:

(1) Creating a single state agency called the Hawaii long-term care agency within the Department of Human Services to administer all long-term care programs and services for the elderly population in the State;

(2) Creating a single entry point system and process, administered by the Hawaii long-term care agency, to integrate and facilitate entry and access to long-term care services in Hawaii. The single entry process includes:

(A) A statewide information and referral system;

(B) Use of a uniform and standardized screening process;

(C) Use of a uniform and standardized assessment tool to evaluate a consumer's functional needs in terms of activities of daily living;

(D) Establishment of individual service plans using an interdisciplinary team;

(E) Assignment of a case manager to ensure services are provided according to the service plan; and

(F) Intermittent monitoring and updating of service plans to reflect changing functional needs of consumers;

(3) Creating a Hawaii long-term care system to provide a continuum of long-term care services for elders, excluding services provided by the Department of Health for persons with developmental disabilities and mental retardation. The system is to include:

(A) Long-term care facilities;

(B) Adult residential care homes and expanded adult residential care homes;

(C) Assisted living facilities;

(D) Adult day health centers;

(E) Adult day care centers; and

(F) Home care agencies;

(4) Requiring the Hawaii long-term care agency to carry out various supplemental activities such as encouraging the development of informal caregiver networks, education of the general public to purchase private long-term care insurance, advocating for inclusion by carriers of home and community-based services options, expanding or creating new Medicaid waiver programs, investigating the feasibility of using prospective Medicaid payment schedules, and encouraging nursing home conversions to community settings;

(5) Granting the agency broad powers to manage the long-term care system in Hawaii, including licensing the long-term care facilities under paragraph (3);

(6) Creating a long-term care tax credit equal to      per cent of the cost of long-term care insurance premium payments;

(7) Abolishing the Executive Office on Aging while recognizing the Hawaii Long-Term Care Agency as the sole state agency for receipt of federal long-term care moneys for elders;

(8) Transferring rights, powers, functions, and duties, and personnel and appropriations, funds, records, equipment, and other items, of the Department of Health regarding licensing and inspection of certain facilities, of the Department of Human Services regarding Medicaid waiver home and community-based programs, adult and expanded adult residential care payments, and chore services, and of the Executive Office on Aging to the Hawaii Long-Term Care Agency;

(9) Requiring the Governor to appoint, no later than July 1, 2002, the manager of the Hawaii Long-Term Care Agency and members of the Policy Advisory Board for Long-Term Care;

(10) Enabling all rules and policies of the Department of Health, Department of Human Services, and Executive Office on Aging, with respect to the powers and functions transferred, to remain in force until amended or repealed by the Hawaii Long-Term Care Agency; and

(11) Making an appropriation of $        for FY 2002-2003 for transition expenses including salary of the manager.

The bill takes effect on July 1, 2003, except that the appropriation takes effect on July 1, 2002, the repeal of the Executive Office on Aging takes effect on June 30, 2003, the Governor to make appointments upon approval, and tax credits to apply to taxable years beginning after December 31, 2002.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1534, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1534, S.D. 1.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

____________________________

BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair