STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2080

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2531

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committees on Human Services and Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 2531 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO AGING,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to support a coordinated statewide effort to prevent and reduce the impact of falls among older adults by establishing a fall prevention and early detection coordinator position within the Emergency Medical Services and Injury Prevention System Branch of the Department of Health.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Health, Executive Office on Aging, Hawaii Primary Care Association, International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 142 Hawaii, and one individual.

     Your Committees find that falls are by far the leading cause of fatal injuries, injury-related hospitalizations, and emergency medical services attended injuries among adults sixty-five years of age and older in Hawaii.  Direct medical costs for fall and fall-related injuries among older adults amount to almost $95,000,000 each year, and the amount doubles when including the costs of rehabilitation and long term care.  Your Committees further find that access to fall prevention services and programs would significantly reduce these costs as well as minimize suffering and death of Hawaii's aging adults.  Currently there are insufficient resources to develop a statewide approach to reduce and promptly detect falls among the elderly.  A position within the Department of Health's Emergency Medical Services and Injury Prevention System Branch is needed to establish and maintain a program dedicated to fall prevention and detection efforts.

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

     (1)  Amending the amount of funds appropriated out of the trauma system special fund from $78,555 to $81,985 to reflect the recently adjusted salary rate for state employees; 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 Human Services and Health that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2531, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2531, 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,

____________________________ JOSH GREEN, Chair

____________________________ SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair