STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1285

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 807

       H.D. 1

       S.D. 1

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2007

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Human Services and Public Housing, to which was referred H.B. No. 807, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CAREGIVING,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds to expand the Kupuna Care Program's in‑home and access services, and to provide expanded assistance and support to family caregivers.

     The Long‑Term Care Ombudsman, Kokua Council, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, the Hawaii Disability Rights Center, and nine individuals submitted testimony in support of this measure with the proposed amendments.  The Department of Health submitted testimony in support of the intent of this measure with the proposed amendments.

     Your Committee received a statement from the Long‑Term Care Ombudsman that this measure, if passed, would cost the State approximately $311,628 for fiscal year 2007‑2008, and $236,628 for fiscal year 2008-2009.

     Your Committee finds that the Executive Office on Aging's Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program is mandated by the United States Administration on Aging through the Older Americans Act.  The Long-Term Care Ombudsman currently advocates for and protects the rights of residents of nursing homes, adult residential care homes, assisted living facilities, and other long-term care facilities.  However, there is no statutory provision for the establishment of an Office of the Long-Term Care Ombudsman.

     The program is staffed by the Long-Term Care Ombudsman, one Long-Term Care Ombudsman specialist, and one volunteer coordinator.  The Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program serves over eight thousand residents in approximately seven hundred thirty-one licensed facilities statewide.  The Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program needs to hire regional program specialists to better provide for residents of long term care facilities on the neighbor islands.

     It is your Committee's intent to formally establish an Office of the Long-Term Care Ombudsman pursuant to the federal Older Americans Act, as amended.  Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Deleting all of its provisions and replacing them with the contents of S.B. No. 1190, S.D. 1, to:

          (A)  Establish an Office of the Long‑Term Care Ombudsman within the Executive Office on Aging; and

          (B)  Appropriate $311,628 for fiscal year 2007‑2008, and $236,627 for fiscal year 2008‑2009, for the Office of the Long‑Term Care Ombudsman to hire additional staff and to support the operation and delivery of a regional Long‑Term Care Ombudsman Program on the neighbor islands; and

     (2)  Making technical, nonsubstantive changes for the purposes of clarity, consistency, and style.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Human Services and Public Housing that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 807, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 807, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Human Services and Public Housing,

____________________________

SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair