STAND. COM. REP. NO. 618

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 68

       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 Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 68 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HEALTH,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to promote choice and autonomy by providing seniors with safe assisted living options.

     The measure accomplishes this purpose by establishing safety and evacuation criteria for assisted living facilities that accept or retain individuals with physical, cognitive, or other impairment that would prevent them from safely evacuating the facility with minimum assistance.  The measure requires that the criteria be implemented by July 1, 2008.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from Department of Health, Roselani Place, and Maui Long Term Care Partnership.

     Your Committee finds that the State's elderly population is growing to unprecedented heights as the baby boomers enter retirement.  It is inevitable that some of these seniors will need assistance with their day-to-day activities, while maintaining their much deserved independence.  However, many seniors do not require the level of care that is provided by skilled nursing facilities.  Instead, safe assisted living arrangements are the most desired options for these individuals.

     This measure is closely related to the concept of aging in place and encouraging the elderly to live in the least restrictive setting.  These are laudable goals of a long-term care system.  Assisted living facilities provide a combination of housing and personalized support services designed to respond to individual needs and to promote choice, responsibility, independence, privacy, dignity, and individuality.  Your Committee believes this measure promotes the safety of assisted living facilities.

     Your Committee has amended this measure to:

     (1)  Clarify that the safety measures must allow the individual to safely evacuate the facility independently for self-preservation; and

     (2)  Make technical, nonsubstantive amendments to correct a cross-reference citation.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 68, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 68, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Health,

____________________________

DAVID Y. IGE, Chair