STAND. COM. REP. NO.  1125-08

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2008

RE:   S.B. No. 2830

      S.D. 2

      H.D. 1

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 S.B. No. 2830, S.D. 2, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CAREGIVING,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this bill is to support the work of the Joint Legislative Committee on Family Caregiving (JLCFC) to ensure the necessary community resources for caregivers by, among other things:

(1)  Extending the work of JLCFC to June 30, 2009, to allow it more time to complete its mission;

(2)  Changing JLCFC's name to the Joint Legislative Committee on Aging in Place (JLCAP);

(3)  Expanding JLCAP's mandate to include aging in place issues related to family caregiving;

(4)  Requiring Hawaii's Aging and Disability Resource Center to report to the JLCAP on implementation of its physical site in Hawaii County and its virtual site in the City and County of Honolulu;

(5)  Requiring JLCAP to design a cash and counseling project for non-Medicaid eligible elders;

(6)  Providing JLCAP with an exemption from the State Procurement Code to contract with a qualified consultant to assist in designing a cash and counseling program;

(7)  Appropriating funds to JLCAP;

(8)  Allowing the Executive Office on Aging's (EOA) Kupuna Care Program to include overnight, weekend, and emergency respite services, as well as provide grants to caregivers and for home modification;

(9)  Increasing the operating budget of EOA to increase program funding for the Kupuna Care Program;

(10) Establishing a Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Task Force (Task Force) to:

(A)  Focus on the needs and issues of grandparents raising grandchildren; and

(B)  Submit an interim report to JLCAP before the 2009 Regular Session and a final report prior to June 30, 2009;

     and

(11) Appropriating funds to EOA to continue its respite inventory project in collaboration with the University of Hawaii's School of Social Work.

The State Council on Developmental Disabilities, Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Kokua Council, Hawaii Alliance for Retired Americans, Policy Advisory Board for Elder Affairs, Hawaii Aging Advocates Coalition, Catholic Charities Hawaii, AARP Hawaii, National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Healthcare Association of Hawaii, Hawaii Coalition of Caregivers, and several concerned individuals supported this bill.  The Executive Office on Aging supported the intent of this measure.

Your Committees have amended this bill by inserting a new "PART VI" to this measure to increase payments for the level of care for adult residential care homes types I and II, licensed developmental disabilities domiciliary homes, community care foster family homes, and certified adult foster homes by seven percent from $641.90 to $686.83 for level I and from $749.90 to $802.39 for level II.

Your Committees have further amended this bill by making technical, nonsubstantive changes 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 S.B. No. 2830, S.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2830, S.D. 2, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Legislative Management.

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