STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2225

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2866

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 2866 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT MAKING AN EMERGENCY APPROPRIATION TO THE HAWAII HEALTH SYSTEMS CORPORATION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to make an emergency appropriation to support the functions of the Hawaii Health Systems Corporation and its regions.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Health Systems Corporation, Community Alliance for Mental Health, and one individual.

     Your Committee finds that due to state restrictions on appropriations over the past few years, the Hawaii Health Systems Corporation currently has dangerously low levels of funding and high levels of accounts payable.  Your Committee further finds that without an emergency appropriation, Hawaii Health Systems Corporation's health care operations will be severely impacted, and the impact will place the health care of the residents and visitors of the State in jeopardy.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Increasing the appropriation amount from $15,500,000 to $18,200,000; and

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

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2866, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2866, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Health,

____________________________

JOSH GREEN, Chair