STAND. COM. REP. NO. 106

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 358

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2013

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committees on Human Services and Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 358 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HEALTH,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to require the Department of Health and the Department of Human Services to post on their respective websites reports of all inspections in which a violation was discovered at certain care facilities by January 1, 2015.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Health, Executive Office on Aging, State Council on Developmental Disabilities, ILWU Local 142, Policy Advisory Board for Elder Affairs, and twelve individuals.  Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from the United Group of Home Operators.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Human Services.

 

     Your Committees find that the Department of Health is responsible for licensing, certifying, and monitoring several types of care facilities.  Although the department performs inspections to ensure a standard of quality of these facilities using state monies, the public currently cannot easily access the information contained in the inspection reports.  The public would benefit from greater access to information on the quality and conditions of care facilities in Hawaii.  At least twenty-seven states already have websites that provide evaluations of care facilities.

 

     Your Committees have heard testimony expressing concerns about how long a violation should stay on the website and whether or not these violations should be archived on the website.  Your Committees find that this issue raises a concern that merits further consideration and request that your Committee on Ways and Means further examine this issue raised by the testifiers on this measure.

 

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Removing the applicability of this measure to the Department of Human Services to be consistent with Act 93, Session Laws of Hawaii 2012, which transfers the licensing and certification functions for adult day care centers, community care foster family homes, and the community care case management agencies from the Department of Human Services to the Department of Health effective July 1, 2014;

 

     (2)  Adding adult day care centers and community care foster family homes to the list of state-licensed care facilities for which the Department of Health performs inspections and posts its reports on its website;

 

     (3)  Requiring the Department of Health to include on its website all evaluations, not just those in which a violation is discovered, of all inspections of care facilities; and

 

     (4)  Limiting the posting on the website of a violation report for a care facility to three years, after which the report will be removed from the website.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Human Services and Health that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 358, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 358, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 


Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Human Services and Health,

 

____________________________

JOSH GREEN, Chair

 

____________________________

SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair