STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1222
Honolulu, Hawaii
, 2005
RE: S.B. No. 1620
S.D. 2
H.D. 2
Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say
Speaker, House of Representatives
Twenty-Third State Legislature
Regular Session of 2005
State of Hawaii
Sir:
Your Committee on Labor & Public Employment, to which was referred S.B. No. 1620, S.D. 2, H.D. 1, entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO STATE FUNDS,"
begs leave to report as follows:
The purpose of this bill is to appropriate unspecified amounts of funds to assist various health and human services programs.
The Judiciary; The Queen's Health Systems; The Queen's Medical Center; The Sex Abuse Treatment Center; People Living with HIV/AIDS in Hawaii; Catholic Charities Hawaii; Safe and Sound Program of Catholic Charities Hawaii; West Oahu Hope For A Cure Foundation; Save the FoodBasket, Inc.; Hepatitis Prevention, Education, Treatment & Support Network of Hawaii; Waikiki Community Center; Hawaii Foster Youth Coalition; Child Welfare Services State Advisory Council; and numerous concerned individuals testified in support of this bill. Kaiser Permanente and Hawaii Pacific Health opposed this measure in part. The Department of Budget and Finance submitted comments.
Your Committee understands the concerns raised regarding the allocation of funding to an individual medical facility to address the on-call provision of trauma and emergency medical services since this problem appears to be of statewide concern. Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by:
(1) Deleting the appropriation to a particular medical facility to pay for costs incurred to compensate physicians to be on-call to provide trauma and emergency medical services;
(2) Appropriating funds to facilitate the completion of a study by the Legislative Reference Bureau, in coordination with the Department of Health and The Queen's Medical Center, to evaluate the impact of the physician on-call crisis on The Queen's Medical Center Trauma Program to provide emergency medical services in the State of Hawaii;
(3) Requiring that the study also address the impact of the on-call crisis on the provision of non-trauma emergency medical services and the impact to the patient transfer process that occurs when patients need a higher level of care;
(4) Requiring that the study also recommend any appropriate government or private-sector action to alleviate the problem; and
(5) Requiring that the funds appropriated for this study be matched on a dollar-per-dollar basis by The Queen's Medical Center.
Your Committee has also amended this measure by:
(1) Changing the expending agency for grants provided for staff salaries for various positions and support staff at West Hawaii Community Health Center and Kona Community Hospital from the Hawaii Health Systems Corporation to the Department of Health; and
(2) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for clarity, consistency, and style.
As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Labor & Public Employment that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1620, S.D. 2, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it be referred to the Committee on Finance in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1620, S.D. 2, H.D. 2.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Labor & Public Employment,
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____________________________ KIRK CALDWELL, Chair |
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