HB1809.DOC

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.B. NO.	1809
TWENTY-SEVENTH LEGISLATURE, 2014
STATE OF HAWAII

A BILL FOR AN ACT

RELATING TO HUMAN SERVICES.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. Medicaid, a health and long-term care coverage program serving qualified children, parents, and pregnant women with low income and seniors and disabled adults with low income, has been in effect since 1966. Funded with federal and state funds, medicaid provides certain mandatory benefits as well as optional benefits selected by the providing state.

The legislature finds that health care providers in the State face major financial challenges in providing a continuum of quality health care for Hawaii residents. This financial challenge is due in large part to increasing health care demands, the high cost of health care, and medicaid provider reimbursement rates that do not cover the actual costs of providing this care. Additionally, medicaid service providers have incurred further losses because of nonpayment and delays in payment for services they have provided.

Timely and sufficient medicaid payment and reimbursement to health care providers is imperative to ensure access to quality care and minimize the disruption of medically necessary services for medicaid recipients, realize significant savings and efficiencies in providing these services, reduce the financial losses incurred by providers participating in the medicaid program, and ensure the continued viability of this essential program.

The purpose of this Act is to establish a task force to examine medicaid payment and reimbursement issues.

SECTION 2. (a) There is established within the department of human services for administrative purposes a task force on medicaid payment and reimbursement. The task force shall develop recommendations on improving the timeliness and adequacy of medicaid payment and reimbursement, based on the task force's examination of factors, including:

(1) The cost of treatment and services to patients;

(2) Medicaid methodologies and payment levels, including the amount of Federal Medical Assistance Percentage, or FMAP, the State receives from the federal government;

(3) The demand for institutionalized long-term care;

(4) Insufficient payments for health care from federal and state government payers;

(5) Nonpayment and untimeliness of medicaid provider reimbursement; and

(6) The impact of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 on medicaid payment and reimbursements, which among other things creates a new national medicaid minimum eligibility level that covers most Americans with household incomes up to one hundred thirty-three per cent of the federal poverty level.

(b) The task force shall consist of the following members:

(1) The director of human services, or the director's designee, who shall serve as the chairperson of the task force;

(2) The director of health, or the director's designee;

(3) A representative from the Hawaii Medical Service Association;

(4) A representative from Kaiser Permanente;

(5) A representative from the Hawaii Medical Association;

(6) A representative from the Hawaii Primary Care Association;

(7) A representative from Hawaii Pacific Health; and

(8) A representative from the Hawaii Health Systems Corporation.

(c) The members of the task force on medicaid payment and reimbursement shall serve without compensation for their service on the task force but may be reimbursed for expenses, including travel expenses that are necessary for the performance of their duties. No member shall be made subject to chapter 84, Hawaii Revised Statutes, solely because of that member's participation as a member of the task force.

SECTION 3. The department of human services shall submit a report of the task force's findings and recommendations, including any proposed legislation, to the legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the regular session of 2015.

SECTION 4. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $ or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2014-2015 for the staffing, operations, and convening of the task force on medicaid payment and reimbursement, including any travel expenses that are necessary for the performance of the task force members' duties.

The sum appropriated shall be expended by the department of human services for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 5. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2014.

INTRODUCED BY:	_____________________________