STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2216

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 2306

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2012

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committees on Human Services and Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 2306 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO LONG-TERM CARE,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

 

     (1)  Establish a long-term care task force to coordinate and consolidate state long-term care programs and services under a single executive department or division;

 

     (2)  Establish the position of Deputy Healthcare Transformation Coordinator under the Office of the Governor; and

 

     (3)  Appropriate funds to establish the position of the Deputy Healthcare Transformation Coordinator.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Office of the Healthcare Transformation Coordinator under the Office of the Governor, the Executive Office on Aging of the Department of Health, the State Council on Developmental Disabilities, AARP, the Policy Advisory Board for Elder Affairs, and one individual.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Legislative Reference Bureau and one individual.

 

     Your Committees find that long-term care is an important consideration for any effort to transform Hawaii's health care system, and that the magnitude, policy, and resource needs for long-term care warrant significant attention.  Establishing a coordinator position will assist in managing state long-term care activities.  Additionally, establishing a task force to plan for the consolidation will assist the Legislature in identifying what long-term care programs and services exist and what can be consolidated under a single department or division.

 

     Your Committees note that testimony from the Legislative Reference Bureau requests that the task force's recommendations and proposed legislation, if any, be submitted to the Bureau on an earlier date as to ensure adequate time for drafting, review, and any necessary revisions.

 

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Establishing the long-term care task force under the direction of the Deputy Healthcare Transformation Coordinator within the Office of the Healthcare Transformation Coordinator;

 

     (2)  Allowing the task force chair to appoint additional task force members;

 

     (3)  Delaying the date by which the Deputy Healthcare Transformation Coordinator shall submit its report of task force activities to the Legislature to no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2014;

 

     (4)  Requiring the Legislative Reference Bureau to assist the task force in drafting legislation; provided that the task force shall submit its recommendations and proposed legislation, if any, to the Bureau no later than November 1, 2013;

 

     (5)  Delaying the date on which the task force shall be dissolved to June 30, 2014;

 

     (6)  Requiring nomination of the Deputy Healthcare Transformation Coordinator by the Healthcare Transformation Coordinator in consultation with the Directors of Health and Human Services, the Long-Term Care Commission, and other stakeholders, to the Governor for appointment; and

 

     (7)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Human Services and Health that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2306, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2306, 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 Health,

 

____________________________

JOSH GREEN, M.D., Chair

 

____________________________

SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair