STAND. COM. REP. NO. 983

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 583

       H.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Human Services and Housing, to which was referred H.B. No. 583, H.D. 1, entitled:

 

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

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to require the Department of Human Services to annually increase long-term care facilities' payment rates by applying a federally approved inflation factor to the provider's historical costs or basic prospective payment system rates.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Health Systems Corporation, Healthcare Association of Hawaii, Ohana Pacific Management Company, The Queen's Health Systems, Hale Makua Health Services, and five individuals.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Human Services.

 

     Your Committee finds that it is critical to close the gap between long-term care facilities' costs and reimbursements for care of Medicaid patients so that all of Hawaii's residents have access to quality health care.  Your Committee further finds that the gap between costs and reimbursements has widened significantly in recent years because seventy percent of long-term care facility patients are covered by the state Medicaid program, yet there has been no inflationary update to long-term care facilities' Medicaid reimbursement rates for many years.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Human Services and Housing that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 583, H.D. 1, and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Human Services and Housing,

 

 

 

________________________________

SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair