STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2126

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2840

       S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2016

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 2840 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO REPORTING DEATHS TO STATE AGENCIES,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to authorize the Department of Health to continue to disclose, including through electronic means, lists of names of persons whose deaths have been recorded by the Department to state agencies that maintain official lists of persons and are prohibited by federal law from sharing information for the lists.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Human Services and Hawaii Employer-Union Health Benefits Trust Fund.

     Your Committee finds that although the Department of Health is allowed to verify information contained in vital statistics records by employing a process that matches its vital statistics information with information provided by agencies, that process cannot be used by state agencies whose lists are confidential under federal law.

     Your Committee further finds that some governmental agencies within the State that keep official lists of persons need to know when members on their lists have died.  Such notification of death is important in maintaining the integrity of certain programs, such as Medicaid, by stopping unnecessary payments to contracted managed care health plans on behalf of deceased individuals.  Allowing the Department of Health to report deaths to state agencies that maintain official lists that are confidential under federal law would assist state agencies to maximize the accuracy of their official lists and avoid overpaying benefits and wasting public funds.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Inserting an effective date of June 30, 2016; and

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

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2840, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2840, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Judiciary and Labor.

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

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ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair