STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2628

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2041

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2008

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 2041 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HEALTH,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds to match federal funding for the disproportionate share hospital allowance.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Health Systems Corporation, the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii, The Queens Medical Center, Hawaii Pacific Health, Healthcare Association of Hawaii, and Rehabilitation Hospital of the Pacific.  The Department of Human Services offered comments.

     Your Committee finds that the appropriation of matching funds for the State's portion of the federal disproportionate share hospital allowance in this measure will support medicaid coverage for the State's most vulnerable populations while ensuring that payments made with state funds or controlled by the State are sufficient to cover the actual costs of the care provided.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2041 and recommends that it pass Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

____________________________

ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair