STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2961

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 2913

       H.D. 1

       S.D. 1

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2008

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committees on Human Services and Public Housing and Health, to which was referred H.B. No. 2913, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO KIDNEY DISEASE,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to award a grant to the St. Francis Healthcare System to develop and implement the modified home care and community health demonstration project to provide necessary treatment for patients with chronic kidney and end-stage renal diseases who live in rural areas of the State.

     Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, St. Francis Healthcare System of Hawaii, the National Kidney Foundation, and the Organ Donor Center of Hawaii.

     Your Committees find that there is a great need for better, more efficient healthcare delivery to treat serious chronic ailments for patients who live in rural communities, and that fourteen per cent of Hawaii's population, or approximately 200,000 individuals, suffer from kidney disease, with those numbers increasing every year.  Your Committees further find that the difficulties in obtaining proper treatment are borne not only by patient-sufferers, but also by their caregivers and families.

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

     (1)  Changing the effective date to July 1, 2008; and

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

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Human Services and Public Housing and Health that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2913, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2913, 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 Committees on Human Services and Public Housing and Health,

____________________________ DAVID Y. IGE, Chair

____________________________ SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair