STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1073

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 1284

       H.D. 1

       S.D. 1

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fifth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2009

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committees on Human Services and Health, to which was referred H.B. No. 1284, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HEALTH,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds to increase payments for physician services to medicaid-eligible persons, including fee-for-service and QUEST provider services up to a blank per cent of the current medicare rate.

     Testimony in support of this measure was provided by the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii, the Occupational Therapy Association of Hawaii, Faith Action for Community Equity, American Association of Retired Persons, and Hawaii Pacific Health.  Testimony in opposition of this measure was submitted by the Department of Human Services.  Written testimony presented to your Committees may be reviewed on the Legislature's website.

     Your Committees find that although Hawaii medicaid reimbursement rates are comparable to rates nationally, medicaid rates are typically among the lowest compared to private insurers and medicare.  The funding for the physicians in the medicaid fee-for-service, medicaid QUEST, and medicaid QUEST Expanded Access managed care health plans to provide 79.5 per cent of the 2006 medicare rates will expire July 1, 2009.  Inadequate reimbursement levels represent the primary threat to the ability of low-income pediatric and elderly patients in Hawaii to access quality health care.  Your Committees believe the State should increase reimbursement levels to 100 per cent of the 2006 medicare rates. 

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

     (1)  Clarifying that the measure includes the QUEST Expanded Access program;

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

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Human Services and Health that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1284, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1284, 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 Health,

____________________________ DAVID Y. IGE, Chair

____________________________ SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair