Bill Text: HI HB596 | 2012 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Health; Medicaid Eligibility; Appropriation
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 8-0)
Status: (Enrolled - Dead) 2012-04-13 - (H) Received notice of all Senate conferees being discharged (Sen. Com. No. 747). [HB596 Detail]
Download: Hawaii-2012-HB596-Amended.html
STAND. COM. REP. NO. 848
Honolulu, Hawaii
RE: H.B. No. 596
H.D. 1
S.D. 1
Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui
President of the Senate
Twenty-Sixth State Legislature
Regular Session of 2011
State of Hawaii
Sir:
Your Committee on Human Services, to which was referred H.B. No. 596, H.D. 1, 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) Require the Department of Human Services to provide until July 1, 2016, Medicaid presumptive eligibility to patients who have been waitlisted for long-term care;
(2) Require the Department of Human Services to conduct a study that examines the potential implementation of a computerized system to process Medicaid applications; and
(3) Appropriate funds to the Department of Human Services to cover the cost of any reimbursements made to providers or plans for services provided during the time that waitlisted patients are enrolled but eventually disenrolled due to a determination of ineligibility.
Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Medical Service Association, Kaiser Permanente Hawaii, The Queen's Medical Center, Healthcare Association of Hawaii, Hawaii Disability Rights Center, The Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii, and one individual. Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Department of Human Services.
Your Committee finds that delays in discharging patients who have been waitlisted for long-term care have been costly for Hawaii hospitals, with the duration of these delays ranging between several days to several months, and in some cases more than a year. For these hospitals, each day that a waitlisted patient remains in an acute care hospital bed is another day that an acute case bed is not available for an acute care patient in need.
Your Committee understands the many reasons for the various delays in discharging patients from acute care hospitals, but your Committee believes that the findings in this measure make a strong case for beginning a process to address this ongoing problem.
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 H.B. No. 596, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 596, 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 Committee on Human Services,
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____________________________ SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair |
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