HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

THE THIRTIETH LEGISLATURE

REGULAR SESSION OF 2020

 

COMMITTEE ON HEALTH

Rep. John M. Mizuno, Chair

Rep. Bertrand Kobayashi, Vice Chair

 

Rep. Della Au Belatti

Rep. Calvin K.Y. Say

Rep. Nadine K. Nakamura

Rep. James Kunane Tokioka

Rep. Joy A. San Buenaventura

Rep. Gene Ward

 

NOTICE OF INFORMATIONAL BRIEFING

 

DATE:

Thursday, January 30, 2020

TIME:

10:15 a.m.

PLACE:

Conference Room 329

State Capitol

415 South Beretania Street

 

A M E N D E D  A G E N D A

 

The following participant has been added to the agenda:  Hawaii Pacific University

 

The legislature finds that there is a shortage of healthcare professionals in the State, and that this shortage is especially acute in rural areas. This briefing will review the state of Chronic Kidney and End Stage Renal Disease in Hawaii and provide the historical, current, and future challenges that these patients and their healthcare providers are face with.

 

In Hawaii, the Health Resources and Services Administration reported that the counties of Hawaii and Maui each have an average deficiency of twenty-five full-time healthcare service professionals, while the county of Kauai has a shortage of thirteen full-time healthcare service professionals.  These shortages are expected to worsen as physicians and nurses working in rural areas retire faster than new healthcare recruits can replace them.  Simultaneously, the population in the State's rural areas has increased in recent years, even as the State's overall population has seen a decline.  These two factors combined will lead to a worsening of the ratio between healthcare professionals to patients.  The legislature recognizes that as this ratio worsens, so may patient quality of care.

 

To counteract this trend, the Certificate of Need (CON) is a state regulatory mechanism for prudently establishing or expanding healthcare facilities in a given area. The CON process aims to control healthcare costs by restricting duplicative services and ensuring criteria such as need, cost, quality, accessibility, availability, and acceptability are followed. Currently, Hawaii is one of 36 states and Washington, D.C. which operate a CON program with wide variation state-to-state.

 

The rationale for imposing market entry controls is that regulation, grounded in community-based planning, will result in more appropriate allocation and distribution of health care resources and, thereby, help assure access to care, maintain or improve quality, and help control health care capital spending.

 

The purpose of this briefing is to provide viable options for smart growth for medical facilities, especially in rural areas of the State.

 

 

 

 

 

Invited to participate:

 

Department of Health, State Health Planning and Development Agency

Healthcare Association of Hawaii

National Kidney Foundation of Hawaii

Liberty Dialysis-Hawaii

US Renal Care

Hawaii Pacific University

 

If you require special assistance or auxiliary aids and/or services to participate in the House public hearing process (i.e., sign or foreign language interpreter or wheelchair accessibility), please contact the Committee Clerk at 586-6050 or email your request for an interpreter to HouseInterpreter@Capitol.hawaii.gov at least 24 hours prior to the hearing for arrangements.  Prompt requests submitted help to ensure the availability of qualified individuals and appropriate accommodations.

 

For further information, please call the Committee Clerk at 586-6050.

 

 

 

 

 

 

________________________________________

Rep. John M. Mizuno

Chair