STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2141

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 2092

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2012

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Human Services, to which was referred S.B. No. 2092 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HEALTH,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

 

     (1)  Establish presumptive Medicaid eligibility for patients who are waitlisted for a long-term care facility; and

 

     (2)  Appropriate funds to cover the cost of any reimbursement made to providers or plans for service during the time the waitlisted patients are enrolled in Medicaid but eventually determined to be ineligible for Medicaid.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Consumer Family & Youth Alliance, the Hawaii Disability Rights Center, the Hawaii Health Systems Corporation, the Healthcare Association of Hawaii, Kaiser Permanente, the Policy Advisory Board for Elder Affairs, The Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii, and two individuals.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Department of Human Services.

 

     Your Committee finds that on any given day there is on average one hundred fifty patients in Hawaii's hospitals who have been treated to be well enough to be transferred to a long-term care facility.  These patients are placed on a waitlist for days, weeks, months, or in some cases over a year because long-term care is not available.  This represents an inappropriate quality of care for the patient and creates a serious financial drain on hospitals.  Your Committee further finds that the provision of presumptive Medicaid eligibility will alleviate the current problem experienced by hospitals as well as patients who are waitlisted.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Human Services that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2092, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2092, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Human Services,

 

 

 

____________________________

SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair