STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1668

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 833

       H.D. 2

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2007

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred H.B. No. 833, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO EMPLOYMENT,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this measure is to exempt Medicaid waiver service from the scope of worker's compensation, temporary disability and prepaid health care laws.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support from Life Connections, Inc., Aloha Habilitation Services, Inc., Nursing Advocates & Mentors, Inc., Catholic Charities Hawai'i, Filipino Coalition for Solidarity, Congress of Visayan Organizations, National Federation of Filipino American Associations, Oahu Filipino Community Council, Philippine Nurses Association-Hawaii, Responsive Caregivers of Hawaii, Home & Community Services of Hawaii, Inc., Kobayashi Sugita & Goda, United Filipino Council of Hawaii, and Supporting Exceptional Citizens of Hawaii.  Comments were received from the Attorney General, the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations (DLIR) and the State Council on Developmental Disabilities and eighteen private citizens.  Opposing testimony was received from a private citizen. 

 

     Currently, numerous individuals provide a valuable service to the State of Hawaii by providing Medicaid waiver services to disabled and elderly adults.  Sections 386-1, 392-5 and 393-5, Hawaii Revised Statutes, already exempt providers of Medicaid waiver services in the employ of the “recipient of social service payments”. 

 

Your Committee finds that this measure is necessary to clarify that the “recipient of social service payments” includes a “corporation or private agency that contracts directly with the department of human services”.  Such clarification is consistent with existing law and reflects the past practices of Medicaid waiver service providers under the prior determinations of the law by the Director of Labor and Industrial Relations.

 

Your Committee finds that this measure properly clarifies the existing exemptions in sections 386-1, 392-5 and 393-5, Hawaii Revised Statutes,(HRS), by including domestic services in the exemptions while excluding Medicaid waiver services known as “adult day health” from the exemptions.  While “adult day health” services were previously covered under these existing exemptions, the industry practice has been to utilize employees to provide such services at day care facilities.

 

     Your Committee has amended the measure by requiring a study to be done on the financial impact and consequences for service providers who provide Medicaid waiver service for persons with developmental disabilities and mental retardation as recommended by the State Council on Developmental Disabilities.  This study is warranted even though this measure does not expand the scope of the existing exemptions in sections 386-1, 392-5, and 393-5, HRS.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Labor that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 833, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 833, H.D. 2, S.D. 2.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary and Labor,

 

 

 

____________________________

CLAYTON HEE, Chair