Bill Text: HI SB799 | 2012 | Regular Session | Amended

---

Bill Title: QUEST Expanded Access; Health Care; University of Hawaii; Appropriation

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 13-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2011-12-01 - Carried over to 2012 Regular Session. [SB799 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2012-SB799-Amended.html

---

 

 

STAND. COM. REP. NO. 229

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 799

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2011

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committees on Human Services and Education, to which was referred S.B. No. 799 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HEALTH CARE,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds to the Myron B. Thompson School of Social Work at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa to conduct a social audit of QUEST Expanded Access.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Healthcare Association of Hawaii and four individuals.  Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Department of Human Services.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from University of Hawai‘i at Manoa Myron B. Thompson School of Social Work.

 

     Your Committees find that QUEST Expanded Access is a Medicaid-managed care program that replaced a fee-for-service program in 2009, and provides care to low-income individuals who are aged, blind, or disabled.  These individuals typically have multiple medical conditions and require care from different health care providers.

 

     Your Committees further find that the goals of QUEST Expanded Access include a reduction in the fragmentation of care and the assurance of coordination across the health care continuum.  In addition, the program is designed to be fiscally predictable, stable, and sustainable in order to assure access to high quality, cost-effective care.

 

     Your Committees also find that enrollees, advocates, and health care providers have expressed serious concerns that QUEST Expanded Access is failing to meet its stated goals and that many enrollees are not receiving adequate care.

 

     Your Committees additionally find that QUEST Expanded Access should be formally evaluated to determine whether these concerns are valid, and if so, to correct existing problems.  In this regard, social auditing is a process that evaluates programs to determine their social and economic benefits and limitations.  Social auditing is a way of measuring the extent to which a program fulfills its stated values and objectives.  Social auditing information is collected through various research methods, including surveys, interviews, and case studies.

 

     Your Committees have heard the concerns regarding the Myron B. Thompson School of Social Work at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa and its ability to conduct a social audit.  Your Committees believe that the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa College of Social Sciences Public Policy Center is better equipped to undertake the task proposed by this measure.

 

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Changing the organization to perform the social audit from the Myron B. Thompson School of Social Work at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa to the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa College of Social Sciences Public Policy Center;

 

     (2)  Clarifying that the scope of the social audit shall include evaluations of access to patients, positive health outcomes, and other criteria; and

 

     (3)  Making a technical, nonsubstantive amendment for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Human Services and Education that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 799, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 799, 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 Education,

 

____________________________ JILL TOKUDA, Chair

____________________________ SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair