STAND. COM. REP. NO.  895

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2007

RE:   H.B. No. 104

      H.D. 2

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2007

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Finance, to which was referred H.B. No. 104, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HEALTH,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this bill is to improve access to medical care by:

(1)  Establishing a process by which Medicaid fee-for-service individual provider reimbursement rates are increased annually for inflation;

(2)  Retroactively adjusting for inflation payments made to providers of hospital outpatient services and other individual providers to account for the lack of a rate increase for the past five years; and

(3)  Appropriating funds to increase the Medicaid fee schedule to 100 percent of the 2006 Medicare fee schedule for fiscal biennium 2007-2009.

     The Healthcare Association of Hawaii, Hawaii Primary Care Association, Hawaii Medical Association, Kaiser Permanente, and Hawaii Chapter – American Physical Therapy Association supported this bill.  Hawaii Pacific Health and The Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii supported this measure with amendments.  The Department of Human Services opposed this bill.

     Your Committee has amended this bill by:

(1)  Removing the specific appropriation for adjusting for inflation payments made to Medicaid fee-for-service practitioners during fiscal biennium 2005-2007;

(2)  Deleting the specific percentage amount tied to the Medicaid fee schedule;

(3)  Changing the effective date to July 1, 2020, to facilitate further discussion; and

(4)  Making technical, nonsubstantive changes for clarity, consistency, 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 H.B. No. 104, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 104, H.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Finance,

____________________________

MARCUS R. OSHIRO, Chair