STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2047

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2006

RE: S.B. No. 2339

S.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2006

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 2339 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT MAKING AN EMERGENCY APPROPRIATION TO THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH FOR THE EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES SYSTEM BRANCH,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to appropriate additional funds to the Department of Health for ambulance services.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Health, Honolulu Emergency Services Department, American Medical Response, and Hawaii Medical Association.

Your Committee finds that additional funding is needed for Emergency Medical Services in order to comply with negotiated collective bargaining increases, increased fuel costs, and increased costs in contract ambulance services for the counties of Maui and Kauai.

For clarity, your Committee amended this measure to specify that the appropriated funds for the City and County of Honolulu and the County of Hawaii are to be distributed by the Department of Health. Your Committee further amended this measure to clarify appropriate expenditures, including general operating expenses, equipment, and supplies for ambulance-related services.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2339, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2339, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Health,

____________________________

ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair