STAND. COM. REP. NO. 382

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 787

       S.D. 1

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2011

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committees on Health and Human Services, to which was referred S.B. No. 787 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HEALTH,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to require rates for Medicaid reimbursements to acute care hospitals that treat waitlisted long-term care patients to be equal to rates for similarly related services and to appropriate funds for increased Medicaid reimbursements in order to fairly compensate these hospitals.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from The Queen's Medical Center, Hawaii Disability Rights Center, Healthcare Association of Hawaii, Kaiser Permanente Hawaii, and Hawai‘i Pacific Health.  Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Department of Human Services.

     Your Committees find that it is essential to provide fair compensation to acute care hospitals for the services they provide to Medicaid patients who have been treated for acute illnesses and injuries and who have recovered sufficiently so that they may be transferred to long-term care, but for whom long-term care is not available. 

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1)  Inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050, to allow for further discussion; and

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

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Health and Human Services that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 787, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 787, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Health and Human Services,

____________________________ SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair

____________________________ JOSH GREEN, M.D., Chair