STAND. COM. REP. NO. 399

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 1241

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2013

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committees on Health and Commerce and Consumer Protection, to which was referred S.B. No. 1241 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 amend section 480-11(d), Hawaii Revised Statutes, to exclude from unfair competition and anti-trust law, certain discussions between health care providers or facilities, managed care plans, government agencies, or health care related organizations, under certain circumstances.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Healthcare Association of Hawaii and Hawaii Medical Service Association.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of the Attorney General.

 

     Your Committees find that developing uniform administrative standards and procedures will enhance the quality of health care in Hawaii.  Such standards include pre-authorization forms, drug formularies, credentialing forms, quality metrics, and patient demographic information.  In the development of these standards, it is important to encourage discussion and agreements among health care providers, insurers, and other health care organizations.  Since antitrust laws are likely to have a dampening effect on such discussions, this measure will facilitate collaborative efforts among Hawaii's health care providers and other relevant health care entities and assist them in improving health care quality while controlling costs.

 

     Your Committees have amended this measure by deleting its contents and inserting language to:

 

     (1)  Describe in a findings and purpose section the importance of developing and implementing strategies and rules directed at improving the quality and cost-effectiveness of the health care delivery system in the State;

 

     (2)  Establish the health care transformation program within the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs whose principal mission is to plan, develop, and implement initiatives and policies directed at improving the quality and cost-effectiveness of the health care delivery system in the State and ensuring that Hawaii residents and visitors have access to high quality and cost effective health care;

 

     (3)  Specify the types of strategies that the Department shall develop in regard to the health care transformation program;

 

     (4)  Allow the Department to informally consult with any stakeholder or subject matter expert in order to facilitate the development and monitor the effectiveness of any strategies or to facilitate the adoption or monitor the effectiveness of any rules to implement the strategies;

 

     (5)  Require the Director of Commerce and Consumer Affairs to submit a report of strategies and findings to the Legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2014; and

 

     (6)  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 Health and Commerce and Consumer Protection that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1241, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1241, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Labor.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Health and Commerce and Consumer Protection,

 

____________________________

ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair

 

____________________________

JOSH GREEN, Chair