STAND. COM. REP. NO. 617

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 1102

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2013

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 1102 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT MAKING AN EMERGENCY APPROPRIATION TO THE DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES FROM THE HOSPITAL SUSTAINABILITY PROGRAM SPECIAL FUND,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to make an emergency appropriation of $43,000,000 for fiscal year 2012-2013 out of the hospital sustainability program special fund to be used in accordance with the purposes of that fund, including the reimbursement of moneys advanced in fiscal year 2012-2013 from the health care payments program.

 

     Your Committee received written comments in support of this measure from the Department of Human Services, Healthcare Association of Hawaii, and the North Hawaii Community Hospital.

 

     Your Committee received written comments on this measure from Hawaii Pacific Health and Hawaii Health Systems Corporation.

 

     Your Committee finds that payments to hospitals for care provided to Medicaid enrollees often do not cover the cost of that care.  To offset the uncompensated care, the hospital sustainability program, established in 2012, allows the Department of Human Services to assess fees on hospitals and utilize the moneys received to draw down federal dollars for supplemental payments to hospitals.  While those fees are being collected, the Department of Human Services, in good faith, has advanced moneys from the Medicaid health care payments program to avoid delays in payments to private hospitalsThis measure authorizes the expenditure of funds from the hospital sustainability program special fund to ensure that the Department of Human Services can continue making supplemental payments to hospitals and avoid a shortfall for the moneys it has already advanced.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1102 and recommends that it pass Third Reading.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

 

 

 

____________________________

DAVID Y. IGE, Chair