STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1538

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 851

       H.D. 1

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred H.B. No. 851, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HEALTH,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate moneys to establish an advanced life support ambulance to be based in Puna on the island of Hawaii, including the acquisition of a vehicle, equipment, and funding personnel costs for state-certified emergency medical services personnel.

     Your Committee received written comments in support of this measure from The Daniel Sayre Memorial Foundation.  Your Committee received written comments on this measure from the Department of Health.

     Your Committee finds that Puna residents are in need of an additional advanced life support ambulance to supplement the current Hawaii county fire department's emergency medical services system.  Your Committee believes that Puna's population has greatly expanded, with a projected population increase to seventy-five thousand individuals within the next fifteen years.  Your Committee finds that the ongoing lava flow has exacerbated the need to serve the nearly ten thousand residents within the projected lava impact area.  Your Committee further finds that an additional advanced life support ambulance will help to reduce death and disability among residents and visitors to the island of Hawaii.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Expanding the single-year appropriation for fiscal year 2015-2016 to include both years of the fiscal 2015-2017 biennium; and

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

Your Committee notes that this measure appropriates moneys from the emergency medical services special fund.  Your Committee intends that those special funds be used if available. 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 851, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 851, H.D. 1, S.D. 1.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

________________________________

JILL N. TOKUDA, Chair