STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2761

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 3258

       S.D. 3

 

 

 

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2008

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 3258, S.D. 2, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO MEDICAID HOSPITAL AND LONG TERM CARE REIMBURSEMENTS,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this measure is to establish guidelines for Medicaid reimbursement to hospitals for patients who are waitlisted for long term care and to long term care facilities for patients with medically complex conditions who were previously receiving acute care services in an acute hospital.

 

     Additionally, this measure appropriates funds for Medicaid reimbursements to hospitals and nursing facilities.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Policy Advisory Board for Elder Affairs, Hawaii Disability Rights Center, Healthcare Association of Hawaii, Hawaii Long Term Care Association, and The Queen's Medical Center.  Testimony in opposition to the measure was received from the Department of Human Services.

 

     Your Committee finds that adjustment to Medicaid payments will improve the flow of patients from acute hospitals to facilities with long term care beds and will alleviate the waitlist backlog that patients are facing.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by adopting the recommendations suggested by Healthcare Association of Hawaii by:

 

     (1)  Recasting the section of the measure on Medicaid reimbursements as a new section to be added to chapter 346, Hawaii Revised Statutes (the Department of Human Services law), and adding clarifying language, such as replacing the term "long term care facilities" with the term "facilities with long term care beds";

 

     (2)  Expanding the appropriation for Medicaid reimbursements to hospitals to include facilities with long term care beds, deleting reference to waitlisted patients and the payment rate, and changing the appropriation to an unspecified amount; and

 

     (3)  Deleting the appropriation for Medicaid payments to nursing facilities as duplicative with the foregoing changes.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 3258, S.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 3258, S.D. 3.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

 

 

 

____________________________

ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair