STAND. COM. REP. NO. 914

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.C.R. No. 18

       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 Commerce and Consumer Protection, to which was referred S.C.R. No. 18 entitled:

"SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION URGING THE FORMATION OF A TASK FORCE TO DEVELOP RECOMMENDATIONS FOR IMPROVING THE PROVISION OF OBESITY PREVENTION-RELATED SERVICES AND COUNSELING IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PATIENT PROTECTION AND AFFORDABLE CARE ACT,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to request the Department of Health to establish the Obesity Prevention Healthcare Reimbursement Task Force to:

     (1)  Assess gaps in health care providers' ability to prevent and provide treatment for obesity-related services and counseling;

     (2)  Investigate providers' reimbursement options for the provision of these services;

     (3)  Educate providers about reimbursement options; and

     (4)  Encourage providers' utilization of reimbursement options.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Hawaii Pacific Health, and one individual.

     Your Committees find that obesity is a major health and economic concern for the State, causing higher medical costs and lower quality of life.  In Hawaii, adult obesity has more than doubled between 1995 and 2009, and childhood obesity increased by thirty-eight percent between 1999 and 2009.  Your Committees also find that obesity-related medical expenditures in Hawaii were calculated to be over $470,000,000 in 2009.  Your Committees further find that the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act provides an opportunity to assess gaps in health care providers' ability to prevent and treat obesity and that this measure would establish a task force to take advantage of such an opportunity.

     Your Committees have amended this 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 Commerce and Consumer Protection that are attached to this report, your Committees concur with the intent and purpose of S.C.R. No. 18, as amended herein, and recommend that it be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means, in the form attached hereto as S.C.R. No. 18, S.D. 1.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Health and Commerce and Consumer Protection,

____________________________ ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair

____________________________ JOSH GREEN, Chair