STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2397

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 3042

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2016

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committees on Higher Education and the Arts and Human Services, to which was referred S.B. No. 3042 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO LONG-TERM CARE,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds to the University of Hawaii's Center on Aging to establish a long-term care training program to expand the State's workforce capacity for home- and community-based care.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the University of Hawai‘i System, Policy Advisory Board for Elder Affairs, Hawai‘i Family Caregiver Coalition, and two individuals.

     Your Committees find that Hawaii's rapidly growing elderly population requires an expansion of the State's infrastructure to accommodate a broader range of home- and community-based long-term care options.  Your Committees further find that a critical element for the expansion of this type of care is the development of an adequate long-term care workforce.  In 2006, the Legislature appropriated funds for Kapiolani Community College to develop a long-term care program to meet the demand for long-term healthcare workers.  The program was developed and run through 2014, but currently is not in operation.  Your Committees received testimony indicating that the University of Hawaii Center on Aging is training numerous healthcare professionals at all levels and is equipped to expand the quality and quantity of home- and community-based long-term care workers, improve the support and training of family caregivers, and promote active aging.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Higher Education and the Arts and Human Services that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 3042 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 Higher Education and the Arts and Human Services,

________________________________ SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair

________________________________ BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair