HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.B. NO.	284
THIRTIETH LEGISLATURE, 2019
STATE OF HAWAII

A BILL FOR AN ACT

relating to health.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. This Act shall be known and may be cited as the "Fair Share Health Care Disclosure Act".

SECTION 2. The legislature finds that public assistance programs are essential to ensuring that all residents have access to healthy food, quality health insurance, basic needs, cash assistance, child care, and income supports. These programs have helped millions of individuals to rise out of poverty.

The legislature further finds that some employers have abused public assistance programs by providing their employees with low wages and poor benefits with the intention or expectation that the employees will enroll in public assistance programs to subsidize their income. Nationwide, this business strategy costs taxpayers billions of dollars per year and puts responsible businesses at a competitive disadvantage. For example, more than sixty per cent of enrollees in medicaid and the children's health insurance program are members of working families.

The legislature believes that large, profitable employers should pay wages and benefits that do not impoverish workers or shift costs to taxpayers.

The purpose of this Act is to require the department of human services to compile data and identify employers that have numerous employees enrolled in public assistance programs so that the legislature and other policy makers will have a deeper understanding of the causes and sources of underemployment, poverty wages, and the economic impacts on society, business, and the state budget.

SECTION 3. Chapter 346, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new section to part I to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

"§346- Fair share health care disclosure; report. (a) The department shall compile data regarding employers having employees who receive public assistance, including benefits under the state medicaid program and other services or other benefits administered by the department, by reviewing employment information submitted to the department by recipients. The department shall submit a report to the legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of each regular session identifying the fifty employers having the highest number of employees who were recipients during the previous fiscal year.

(b) For each of the fifty employers, the report shall also include the:

(1) Employer's address;

(2) Number of full-time and part-time employees during the previous year;

(3) Number of recipients employed by the employer during the previous fiscal year;

(4) Number of recipients who were a spouse or dependent of an employee;

(5) Cost to the state of providing public assistance to the employees, spouses of employees, and dependents of employees, if available; and

(6) Number of employees who were also recipients and were eligible to receive employer-provided health benefits in excess of the minimum requirements established by chapter 393.

(c) The report shall not include the names or other personally identifiable information of any employees, spouses of employees, or dependents of employees and shall be subject to the privacy standards established pursuant the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, Public Law 104-191, and its related regulations, as may be amended.

(d) The department of labor and industrial relations shall assist the department in complying with this section, including sharing employment data.

(e) As used in this section, "recipients" means employees who receive public assistance as described in subsection (a)."

SECTION 4. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 5. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:

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Report Title:

DHS; DLIR; Public Assistance; Employer; Employee; Report

Description:

Requires the Department of Human Services to compile information regarding employers with employees who receive public assistance. Requires the Department of Human Services to submit an annual report to the Legislature on the 50 employers with the highest number of employees receiving public assistance. Requires the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations to share employment data for the report.

The summary description of legislation appearing on this page is for informational purposes only and is not legislation or evidence of legislative intent.