STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1272
Honolulu, Hawaii
, 2005
RE: S.B. No. 1772
S.D. 1
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 Judiciary, to which was referred S.B. No. 1772, S.D. 1, H.D. 1, entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO EMPLOYERS,"
begs leave to report as follows:
The purpose of this bill is to provide publicly available information regarding employers who shift the responsibility of providing health care coverage for their employees to publicly funded medical assistance programs by:
(1) Requiring each applicant for medical assistance to identify the employer of the proposed beneficiary of medical assistance;
(2) Requiring the Department of Human Services (DHS) to submit an annual report to the Legislature identifying all employers who employ 25 or more beneficiaries of medical assistance programs administered by DHS;
(3) Requiring the annual report to be made available to the public and to include in the annual report:
(A) Each employer's name and names of subsidiaries that employ beneficiaries of DHS medical assistance programs;
(B) The location of the employer;
(C) The total number of the employer's employees and dependents who are enrolled in each DHS medical assistance program; and
(D) The total cost to the state of providing medical assistance benefits for the employees and enrolled dependents of each identified employer;
and
(4) Establishing that any member of the public that requests a copy of the annual report shall receive one.
The Hawaii State AFL-CIO, Hawaii Government Employees Association, AFSCME Local 152, AFL-CIO, and ILWU Local 142 supported this bill. DHS opposed this bill.
Your Committee has amended this bill by:
(1) Establishing that to ascertain certain information required in the annual report, DHS shall consult with the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs;
(2) Clarifying that the annual report shall include the total cost "per year" to the state of providing medical assistance benefits for the employees and enrolled dependents of each identified employer;
(3) Deleting the provision that establishes that any member of the public that requests a copy of the annual report shall receive one, because a separate provision allows the Director of DHS discretion as to the means through which the annual report shall be made available to the public; and
(4) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for style, clarity, and consistency.
As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1772, S.D. 1, 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. 1772, S.D. 1, H.D. 2.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary,
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____________________________ SYLVIA LUKE, Chair |
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