STAND.
COM. REP. NO. 1306
Honolulu, Hawaii
, 2025
RE: S.B. No. 1443
S.D. 1
H.D. 1
Honorable Nadine K. Nakamura
Speaker, House of Representatives
Thirty-Third State Legislature
Regular Session of 2025
State of Hawaii
Madame:
Your Committee on Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 1443, S.D. 1, entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH,"
begs leave to report as follows:
The
purpose of this measure is to:
(1) Establish maximum payment rates for medical care for patients of the Hawaii State Hospital or in the custody of the Director of Health at another psychiatric facility;
(2) Authorize the Department of Health to establish payment rates for long-term
care services for certain types of patients; and
(3) Exempt the Department of Health from the Hawaii Public Procurement Code for the procurement of medical care for certain types of patients.
Your Committee finds
that although some aging patients at the Hawaii State Hospital (State Hospital)
are psychiatrically stable, legally cleared for hospital discharge, and have
long-term care needs that are more appropriate for community-based residential
care than in-patient psychiatric hospitalization, no long-term care provider
has agreed to take these patients at Medicaid rates. As a result, the State Hospital has become
the default long-term care facility.
Your Committee further
finds that when a patient at the State Hospital requires medical care outside
of the State Hospital, hospital staff must perform all of the administrative
work to obtain a procurement exemption, negotiate payment rates, and enter into
a contract with the health care provider.
When providers submit bills to the State Hospital, hospital staff must
manually review the billing and codes, resulting in significant delays in
payments to providers. Your Committee
believes that streamlining this process by allowing the Department of Health a
limited exemption from the Hawaii Public Procurement Code and establishing
payment rates for certain types of medical care will ensure timely payments to
health care providers and significantly reduce administrative burden on
hospital staff.
Your Committee has amended this measure by:
(1) Changing its effective date to upon approval; and
(2) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity, consistency, and style.
As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1443, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1443, S.D. 1, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Finance.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Health,
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____________________________ GREGG TAKAYAMA, Chair |
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