STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2955

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 1772

       H.D. 2

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2016

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committees on Human Services and Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health, to which was referred H.B. No. 1772, H.D. 2, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ORAL HEALTH,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds to the Department of Human Services to restore basic adult dental benefits to Medicaid and QUEST integration enrollees.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the State Council on Developmental Disabilities, Hawaii Association of Professional Nurses, Hawaii Disability Rights Center, Hawaii Primary Care Association, Healthcare Association of Hawaii, Ho‘ola Lahui Hawai‘i, Kokua Kalihi Valley, Lanai Community Health Center, Malama I Ke Ola Health Center, Ohana Health Plan, The Queen's Health Systems, Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center, Waimanalo Health Center, and one individual.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Human Services and Department of Health.

     Your Committees find that dental care and oral health services are vital to the overall health of Hawaii's residents.  The Department of Health's 2015 report, Hawaii Oral Health: Key Findings, indicates that only fifty-two percent of low income adults visited a dentist during 2012, and only twenty-seven percent of pregnant women on Medicaid or QUEST visited a dentist during their pregnancy from 2009 to 2011.  In 2012, there were more than three thousand emergency room visits due to preventable dental problems, resulting in aggregate hospital charges for dental emergency visits of $8,500,000.  Your Committees find that an oral health crisis exists in the State, and that one aspect to resolving the crisis is to restore basic adult dental benefits to Medicaid and QUEST integration enrollees.  Additionally, your Committees support the appropriation requested through the Governor's budget for adult dental services.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Human Services and Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1772, H.D. 2, and recommend that it pass Second Reading and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

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

________________________________ ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair

________________________________ SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair