Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Health, to which was referred H.B. No. 647 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to authorize the Insurance Commissioner to waive the filing of any information that a foreign health maintenance organization would otherwise be required to file in order to obtain a certificate of authority.

Your Committee finds that this bill will create a "fast-track" certification process for admitting foreign health maintenance organizations into the State. The bill will enable the Commissioner to process applications more quickly, without sacrificing protection to the public. Since Hawaii's prepaid health insurance market is currently being under-served by a small number of mutual benefit societies, health maintenance organizations, and health insurers, this bill will benefit consumers, in particular, Hawaii's employers, by creating more choices for them as more health maintenance organizations enter the local health insurance market.

Your Committee has amended this measure by identifying the specific information for which the Insurance Commissioner may waive filing, by increasing the conditions under which the Commissioner may not waive filing, and by deleting language giving the Commissioner discretionary authority to subject the foreign health maintenance organization to the normal certification process. Your Committee has also amended this measure by changing the effective date to July 1, 2020.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 647, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 647, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Consumer Protection & Commerce.