STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3347

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 2292

       H.D. 1

       S.D. 2

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred H.B. No. 2292, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT MAKING AN EMERGENCY APPROPRIATION TO THE DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES FOR THE MED-QUEST DIVISION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to make an emergency appropriation to the Department of Human Services to address the budget shortfall in their program ID HMS 902, general support for health care payments, resulting from a delay in reimbursement from the Hawaii Health Connector (Connector).

     Your Committee received written comments in support of this measure from the Department of Human Services.

     Your Committee finds that the Department of Human Services facilitated the Connector's efforts to comply with the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act by providing funding and services to the Connector to develop components of the health insurance exchange.  In addition, 5.25 per cent of the Department's design, development, implementation, and operations costs of the new medicaid KOLEA on-line eligibility system are allocated to the Connector.  The Department of Human Services provided these funds and services with the understanding that the Connector would reimburse the Department using federal funds that it received.

Your Committee further finds that the Connector has not yet reimbursed the Department the full amount required, thus creating a funding shortfall in the Department's medicaid program.  The emergency appropriation in this measure will ensure that the Department of Human Services is able to fund its core operations and continue to serve its beneficiaries while the reimbursement from the Connector is pending.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Changing the appropriation from $4,854,037 to an unspecified amount; and

     (2)  Changing the effective date to July 1, 2050, to facilitate further discussion on the measure.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2292, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2292, H.D. 1, S.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

____________________________

DAVID Y. IGE, Chair