Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Health and Human Services, to which was referred S.B. No. 127 entitled:

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to provide that the plans of care for developmentally disabled persons provide for "support" and not training, of persons in the licensed developmental disabilities domiciliary homes, and to require the Department of Health to determine the rate of payment for residents in licensed homes without specifying the methodology.

The Department of Health, the State Council on Developmental Disabilities, the Disability and Communication Access Board, Kona Krafts, the Arc in Hawaii, and two individuals submitted testimony in support of this measure. The Department of Human Services submitted comments.

Your Committees find that broadening the term "training" to "support" more accurately reflects the nature of residential programming. This measure also clarifies the Department of Health's responsibility in the licensure and oversight of these homes. It also allows the Department of Health to establish a fee schedule for the reimbursement of such residential services and requires the department to set the rate of payment.

Upon further consideration and at the recommendation of the Department of Health, your Committees have amended this measure by keeping the language that determines the rate of payment for residents in the developmental disabilities domiciliary homes pursuant to section 346-53, Hawaii Revised Statutes, and added a provision that the rate of any additional subsidy payment for the reimbursement of developmental disabilities domiciliary homes services shall be determined by the Department of Health.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Health and Human Services that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 127, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 127, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.