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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES |
H.R. NO. |
160 |
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TWENTY-SEVENTH LEGISLATURE, 2014 |
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STATE OF HAWAII |
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HOUSE RESOLUTION
requesting the hawaii health systems corporation and its regional boards to submit plans and recommendations for reducing its operating deficits.
WHEREAS, in 1970, the State assumed all responsibility for community hospitals that had previously been managed by the counties; and
WHEREAS, the Office of the Auditor determined in 1971 that "self-sufficiency is one characteristic which is currently missing from the State hospital program", and that the hospitals were heavily dependent on subsidies from the State's general fund; and
WHEREAS, the Office of the Auditor found in 1988 that these financial concerns and other issues remained unaddressed, and that the need for a major organizational restructuring had been thwarted by the lack of any executive-legislative consensus; and
WHEREAS, the Office of the Auditor found in 1992 that the State's hospitals "have been continuously plagued with financial problems" that had required the appropriation of emergency funds to pay for the hospitals' operating deficits; and
WHEREAS, Act 262 of 1996 established the Hawaii Health Systems Corporation as an independent state agency to operate the community hospitals; and
WHEREAS, annual appropriations from the State's general fund to subsidize the Hawaii Health Systems Corporation rose to $37,000,000 by fiscal year 2006; and
WHEREAS, a comprehensive independent review found in 2009 that the Hawaii Health Systems Corporation was "in a financially perilous condition", and projected that state subsidies would continue to climb; and
WHEREAS, general fund appropriations to subsidize the Hawaii Health Systems Corporation are expected to total $105,500,000 for fiscal year 2014; and
WHEREAS, the executive budget request for fiscal year 2015 would increase the State's subsidies to the Hawaii Health Systems Corporation to $133,900,000; and
WHEREAS, the need for greater self-sufficiency that the Office of the Auditor identified in 1971 remains highly relevant today; and
WHEREAS, in order to protect the financial well-being of the State, the rising tide of operating deficits and increasing general fund subsidies for the Hawaii Health Systems Corporation must be reversed, beginning in the next fiscal biennium; and
WHEREAS, the Hawaii Health Systems Corporation should develop and implement a strategy to operate with smaller operating deficits each subsequent fiscal biennium; now, therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-seventh Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2014, that the Hawaii Health Systems Corporation and each of its five regional boards are requested to submit to the Legislature, not later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Sessions of 2015 and 2016, long-term, multi-biennium plans to reduce the Corporation's operating deficits; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that these long-term plans include options that the Legislature may consider for effecting large-, medium-, and small-scale deficit reductions, along with the corporation's recommendations for changes in expenditures, revenues, services, access, and other relevant aspects of its operations; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the Chair of the Hawaii Health Systems Corporation Board of Directors, the Chairs of the Kauai, East Hawaii, West Hawaii, Maui, and Oahu Regional Boards of the Hawaii Health Systems Corporation, the Director of Health, and the Governor.
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OFFERED BY: |
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Concerning the need to reduce the Hawaii Health Systems Corporation's operating deficits.