STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3093

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: H.B. No. 1895

H.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2018

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health, to which was referred H.B. No. 1895, 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 funds to assist the Department of Health in reviewing, certifying, and recertifying dialysis centers in Hawaii and other health care facilities under the purview of the Department of Health.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Health, Healthcare Association of Hawai‘i, O‘ahu County Committee on Legislative Priorities of the Democratic Party of Hawai‘i, National Kidney Foundation, Liberty Dialysis Hawai‘i and Fresenius Medical Care of North America, and U.S. Renal Care, Inc.

Your Committee finds that 168,000 Hawaii residents suffer from chronic kidney disease, representing approximately one in seven Hawaii residents. Your Committee further finds that approximately four thousand Hawaii residents require dialysis three times per week, and that this number continues to grow by approximately seven hundred per year. Accordingly, additional dialysis centers are planned but require review and certification from the Department of Health before they can be reimbursed for treatment of Medicare and Medicaid patients, who make up eighty-five percent of Hawaii's dialysis population. The review and certification process takes nearly three years to complete, due in part to a shortage of funds and personnel. Your Committee finds that the funds appropriated by this measure will expedite the review and certification process for dialysis centers.

Your Committee notes that this measure has an effective date of July 1, 3000, and a blank appropriation amount and requests that your Committee on Ways and Means insert an appropriate effective date and appropriation amount.

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 H.B. No. 1895, H.D. 1, and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

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

________________________________

ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair