STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2603

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2898

       S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2016

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committees on Judiciary and Labor and Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 2898 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT MAKING EMERGENCY APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE STATE TO COMPLY WITH THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to make emergency appropriations for fiscal year 2015-2016 for the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations and Department of Human Services to cover the short-term costs required to comply with the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Human Services, Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, Office of Enterprise Technology Services, and Hawaii Primary Care Association.

     Your Committees find that the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations and the Department of Human Services used fiscal year 2015-2016 operating funds to cover expenses for the maintenance of the Medicaid eligibility application of the Department of Human Services enterprise system and for the transition of the functions of the Hawaii Health Connector to the State to enable Hawaii to be compliant with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010.  The Departments need to be reimbursed for the funds used to be able to perform their mandated responsibilities and functions during fiscal year 2015-2016 and to continue to make health care payments for Medicaid recipients.

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

     (1)  Deleting section 2; and

     (2)  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 Judiciary and Labor and Ways and Means that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2898, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2898, S.D. 1.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Judiciary and Labor and Ways and Means,

________________________________ JILL N. TOKUDA, Chair

________________________________ GILBERT S.C. KEITH-AGARAN, Chair