Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2002

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 2591, S.D. 1, entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to appropriate $810,000 as a grant-in-aid to the Hana Community Health Center to cover operational costs. In addition this measure:

Your Committee finds that as one of the more remote and isolated residential communities of our State, Hana's population of two thousand to three thousand people live dispersed in a geographical area of over two hundred thirty-three square miles. This community has the dubious distinction of having federal designations as underserved medically and being a professional shortage area for primary care, dental health, and mental health.

There is one school, the Hana high and elementary school with about four hundred students, and a Hana Community Health Center serving these residents.

A recent federal grant implemented the Hana Health Initiative for Children and Adolescents to provide eye exams, hearing screening, pediatric care, dental care, and behavioral health services by linking both the school and the health center.

It is estimated that about one hundred school children qualify for special services under the Felix consent decree who could benefit from the delivery of case management and other health related services that is proposed in the instant measure that would also link the school and the health center.

Your Committee has amended this bill by changing the amount for the grant-in-aid and the portion of the Department of Health Budget for the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Division to blank amounts to allow for further discussion. Your Committee also made technical non-substantive amendments in keeping with proper drafting style.

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. 2591, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2591, S.D. 2.