STAND. COM. REP. NO. 969

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 317

       H.D. 1

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fifth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2009

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committees on Health and Public Safety and Military Affairs, to which was referred H.B. No. 317, H.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO MOBILE MEDICAL CARE,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds to provide the people of the southern portion of the island of Hawaii with increased access to suitable emergency and clinical medical care.

 

     Specifically, this measure provides funding from the federal Homeland Security Grant Program to purchase a mobile medical van based at Kona Community Hospital to provide medical care services in South Kona, Kau, and upper Puna.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Medical Service Association and the Hawaii Government Employees Association.  Testimony in opposition to this measure was submitted by the Department of Health and the Department of Land and Natural Resources.

 

     Written testimony presented to the Committees may be reviewed on the Legislature's website.

 

     Your Committees find that significant barriers exist in accessing medical services in rural areas of the State, particularly the southern area of Hawaii County.  However, your Committees find that the Department of Land and Natural Resources is not the appropriate state department suited for the purchase of mobile medical vans and medical care services.

 

     Accordingly, your Committees have amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Replacing the Department of Land and Natural Resources with the Department of Health as the expending agency for the appropriation; and

 

     (2)  Changing the effective date to July 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion on this matter.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Health and Public Safety and Military Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 317, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 317, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Health and Public Safety and Military Affairs,

 

____________________________

WILL ESPERO, Chair

 

____________________________

DAVID Y. IGE, Chair