STAND. COM. REP. NO.  544-08

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2008

RE:   H.B. No. 2170

      H.D. 2

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2008

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committees on Health and Human Services & Housing, to which was referred H.B. No. 2170, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HEALTH,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this bill is to ensure Hawaii's hospitals remain financially viable by providing fair compensation to:

(1)  Acute care hospitals for the services they provide to Medicaid patients who have recovered sufficiently to be transferred to long-term care, but for whom long-term care is not available; and

(2)  Long-term care facilities for services provided to patients with medically complex conditions.

Additionally, this bill removes regulatory and government mandates that create barriers to transferring waitlisted patients by directing that the Department of Human Services (DHS) make a preliminary or "presumptive determination" to authorize medical assistance in the interval between the application for assistance and the final Medicaid eligibility determination.

     The Healthcare Association of Hawaii, Hawaii Disability Rights Center, Hawaii Long Term Care Association, The Queen's Medical Center, Hawaii Pacific Health, and Hawaii Business Roundtable supported this bill.  DHS opposed this measure.

     Your Committees have amended this bill by:

     (1)  Changing the effective date to January 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion; and

     (2)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for clarity, consistency, and style.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Health and Human Services & Housing that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2170, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2170, H.D. 2, and be referred to the Committee on Finance.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Health and Human Services & Housing,

____________________________ MAILE SHIMABUKURO, Chair

____________________________ JOSHUA B. GREEN, M.D., Chair