STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1631
Honolulu, Hawaii
, 2005
RE: S.B. No. 802
S.D. 2
H.D. 1
Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say
Speaker, House of Representatives
Twenty-Third State Legislature
Regular Session of 2005
State of Hawaii
Sir:
Your Committee on Finance, to which was referred S.B. No. 802, S.D. 2, entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO A STATE PHARMACY ASSISTANCE PROGRAM,"
begs leave to report as follows:
The purpose of this bill is to establish a State Pharmacy Assistance Program (SPAP) within the Department of Human Services (DHS) to assist eligible elderly and disabled individuals in defraying the cost of prescriptions under the new federal Medicare part D drug benefit program.
DHS, the Department of Health, and the Department of the Attorney General testified in support of this bill.
DHS provided a proposed draft of this measure that includes amendments in response to the recent release of new rules and regulations from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMMS).
The amendments include, among other things:
(1) A definition of "full coverage prescription drug benefit";
(2) A provision that the SPAP may be established only if there are no federally approved prescription drug plans available in the State that provide a full coverage prescription drug benefit;
(3) Deletion of enrollment priorities of eligible individuals into the SPAP;
(4) Deletion of the provision requiring DHS to require pharmaceutical companies to provide Medicaid-level rebates, and replacement of that language with a negotiable feature;
(5) Removal of the SPAP eligibility requirement that a person must not be a member of a Medicare advantage plan that provides prescription drug benefits;
(6) Limitation of SPAP payments for eligible persons to co-payments required under the federal Medicare part D pharmacy benefit program; and
(7) Creation of an SPAP special fund.
Your Committee notes that the amendments proposed by DHS did not receive prior concurrence from the previous subject matter committees. However, due to the recent release of new rules and regulations from CMMS, DHS has asked that the amendments be made to comply with the new CMMS rules and regulations. Your Committee has, therefore, amended this bill by incorporating the aforementioned amendments from the proposed draft to move the measure to conference and continue discussion.
Your Committee has further amended this bill by:
(1) Appropriating unspecified amounts from the SPAP special fund for fiscal years 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 to carry out the purposes of this measure;
(2) Changing the effective date to July 1, 2010, to encourage further discussion; and
(3) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for clarity and style.
As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Finance that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 802, S.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 802, S.D. 2, H.D. 1.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Finance,
|
____________________________ DWIGHT TAKAMINE, Chair |
||