STAND. COM. REP. NO.  705

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2007

 

RE:   H.B. No. 1067

      H.D. 1

 

 

 

 

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2007

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committees on Health and Consumer Protection & Commerce, to which was referred H.B. No. 1067 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CERTIFICATES OF NEED,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this bill is to improve the State's process in approving the expansion or creation of new health care facilities and services by establishing a temporary blue ribbon panel to:

 

(1)  Study the certificate of need (CON) process in other states; and

 

(2)  Recommend changes or the abolishment of Hawaii's CON process.

 

     The Governor's Policy Office on behalf of the Administration, Department of Health, Healthcare Association of Hawaii, Hawaii Government Employees Association and numerous concerned individuals opposed this bill.

 

     Your Committees have amended this bill by inserting provisions that:

 

(1)  Clarify the development responsibility of the State Health Planning and Development Agency (SHPDA);

 

(2)  Redefine and narrow the scope of CON requirements so that they are only required for:

 

(A)  Emergency rooms;

 

(B)  Freestanding emergency care facilities; and

 

(C)  Surface ambulance services;

 

(3)  Reverse the order in which the Statewide Health Coordinating Council (Statewide Council) and the individual Subarea Health Planning Council (Subarea Council) hear a CON application to provide the Subarea Council more input closer to the final stage of the CON process;

 

(4)  Eliminate the CON Review Panel to streamline the CON process;

 

(5)  Require the SHPDA administrator to give greater weight to the Subarea Council's decision when the Statewide Council's and Subarea Council's recommendations conflict; and

 

(6)  Require that a hearing on a CON applicant's request for reconsideration must be held on the island where the new facility or activity will be based.

 

Your Committees have further amended this bill by:

 

(1)  Changing the effective date to January 1, 2099, to facilitate further discussion; and

 

(2)  Making technical, nonsubstantive changes for clarity, consistency, and style.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Health and Consumer Protection & Commerce that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1067, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1067, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Finance.


 

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

 

 

____________________________

ROBERT N. HERKES, Chair

 

____________________________

JOSHUA B. GREEN, M.D., Chair