STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1156

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.C.R. No. 52

       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. 52 entitled:

"SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION REQUESTING THE AUDITOR TO ASSESS THE SOCIAL AND FINANCIAL EFFECTS OF REQUIRING HEALTH INSURERS TO PROVIDE COVERAGE FOR MEDICALLY NECESSARY TREATMENT OF OROFACIAL ANOMALIES,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to request the Auditor to assess the social and financial effects of requiring health insurers to provide coverage for medically necessary treatment of orofacial anomalies.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the State Council on Developmental Disabilities; Hawaii Dental Association; Special Education Advisory Group; and eight individuals.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Health.

     Your Committees find that the rate of children in Hawaii with orofacial disorders is estimated to be one in every five hundred.  The more commonly known orofacial anomalies include cleft lip or cleft palate, and three hundred fifty two babies were born with cleft lip or cleft palate in Hawaii between 1986 and 2005.  Your Committees further find that orthodontics are the medically necessary treatments needed to proceed with subsequent reconstructive surgeries for these disorders.

     Your Committees also find that orthodontics has been a covered medical benefit of the Hawaii Medicaid program for several years, and medically necessary orthodontics are included as an essential health benefit under pediatric oral health in the State's healthcare benefits package.  Your Committees also note, however, that orthodontics are not included as a benefit of commercial health insurance.  As a result, your Committees request an assessment of the social and financial effects of requiring health insurers to provide coverage for medically necessary treatment of orofacial anomalies.

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

     (1)  Removing all references to sections 23-51 and 23-52, Hawaii Revised Statutes, and the specific legislative bill mandating health insurance coverage for the treatment of orofacial anomalies to be analyzed, as no such bill was introduced during the Regular Session of 2013;

     (2)  Changing all references from the Auditor to the Department of Health to request the Department of Health to perform the requested assessment;

     (3)  Amending the title accordingly; and

     (4)  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. 52, 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. 52, 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