Bill Text: HI HB2084 | 2010 | Regular Session | Amended

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Federal Disproportionate Share Hospital Allowance; State Match

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 15-0)

Status: (Passed) 2010-07-07 - (S) Became law without the Governor's signature, Act 203, 7/6/2010, (Gov. Msg. No. 695). [HB2084 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2010-HB2084-Amended.html

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STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2756

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 2084

       H.D. 1

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fifth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2010

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committees on Health and Human Services, to which was referred H.B. No. 2084, H.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE FEDERAL DISPROPORTIONATE SHARE HOSPITAL FUNDS,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this measure is to appropriate state matching funds to secure a federal Medicaid disproportionate share hospital appropriation of $15,000,000 which, although designated for Hawaii by the federal government, cannot be expended without a matching state appropriation.

 

     Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by The Queen's Medical Center, Kaiser Permanente Hawaii, the Healthcare Association of Hawaii, the Hawai‘i Primary Care Association, the Hawaii State Rural Health Association, the Hawaii Medical Service Association, The Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii, and the Hawaii Government Employees Association, AFSCME, Local 152, AFL-CIO.  Testimony in opposition to this measure was submitted by the Department of Human Services.  Written testimony presented to the Committees may be reviewed on the Legislature's website.

 

     Your Committees find that Medicaid/QUEST is the cornerstone of health care for Hawaii's most needy population.  However, the reimbursements and payments of Medicaid/QUEST to Hawaii's hospitals are inadequate and force hospitals to absorb multi-million dollar losses. 

 

     Your Committees further find that in 2009, S.B. No. 423 appropriated $12,000,000 in state funds to draw down $15,000,000 in federal funds; however, even though the Legislature overrode the Governor's veto of the measure, the Governor has yet to release those funds.  It is your Committees' hope that the funds provided by this measure will be available in the coming year.

 

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Extending the date of the appropriation from fiscal year 2010-2011 to include the entire 2009-2011 fiscal biennium; and

 

     (2)  Inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050 to encourage further discussion of this measure.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Health and Human Services that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2084, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2084, 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 Human Services,

 

____________________________ SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair		____________________________ DAVID Y. IGE, Chair