STAND. COM. REP. NO. 377

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 936

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2013

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committees on Health and Human Services, to which was referred S.B. No. 936 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE HOSPITAL SUSTAINABILITY PROGRAM,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to continue the hospital sustainability program by:

     (1)  Amending Act 217, Session Laws of Hawaii 2012, to extend the sunset date to June 30, 2014, update the referral dates within its provisions, and make other housekeeping amendments for clarity and consistency; and

     (2)  Appropriating a specified amount from the hospital facility sustainability program special fund for fiscal year 2013-2014 to be used for purposes consistent with the special fund.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Human Services, Hawaii Health Systems Corporation, The Queen's Health Systems, and Healthcare Association of Hawaii.

     Your Committees find that the hospital sustainability program levies a fee on nongovernmental hospitals based on their patient revenues and uses the revenue from the provider fee to leverage federal funds, thereby increasing the realization of Medicaid dollars.  The cost of the fee is promised back to providers through an increase in the Medicaid reimbursement rate for their patient treatment and services.  The provider fee stabilizes declining Medicaid payments and slows the erosion of access to care for those beneficiaries served by the program.  This measure extends the hospital sustainability program to increase sustainable hospitals and access to necessary medical care.

     Your Committees prefer the language in S.B. No. 1110 (Regular Session of 2013), which is substantively identical to this measure.

     Accordingly, your Committees have amended this measure by deleting its contents and replacing it with language from S.B. No. 1110 (2013) and further amending the measure by 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 Health and Human Services that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 936, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 936, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Health and Human Services,

____________________________ SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair

____________________________ JOSH GREEN, Chair