STAND. COM. REP. NO. 986

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 1161

       H.D. 1

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committees on Human Services and Housing and Health, to which was referred H.B. No. 1161, H.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HEALTH,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds to restore basic adult dental benefits to Medicaid enrollees, provide outreach and eligibility services at federally qualified health centers, and establish health homes for Medicaid enrollees at federally qualified community health centers.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the State Council on Developmental Disabilities, Hawaii Primary Care Association, The Queen's Health Systems, Hawaii Dental Association, and three individuals.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Health and Department of Human Services.

 

Your Committees find that the State benefits from ensuring that Hawaii residents have access to primary, behavioral, dental, and preventive health care.  Your Committees note the critical importance of restoring adult dental benefits for Medicaid enrollees and for funding community health centers, which serve uninsured, underinsured, and low-income populations.  Community health centers currently serve one-fourth of Hawaii's Medicaid members and much of the State's homeless population.  In addition to providing a patient-centered delivery system of medical, behavioral, and dental health services, community health centers are a smart investment that save the State money.  Community health centers save the health care system $1,263 per patient per year due to timely, effective care, and care management.

 

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Inserting an appropriation amount of $4,800,000 to restore adult dental benefits to Medicaid enrollees;

 

     (2)  Inserting an appropriation amount of $800,000 for outreach and eligibility services at community health centers;

 

     (3)  Inserting an appropriation amount of $1,000,000 to be appropriated out of the community health centers special fund to establish health homes for Medicaid enrollees at federally qualified community health centers;

 

     (4)  Inserting a general revenue appropriation of $1,000,000 for the administrative support of the health homes program;

 

     (5)  Inserting a general revenue appropriation of $6,000,000 for direct health care for uninsured and underinsured patients at community health centers; 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 Human Services and Housing and Health that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1161, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1161, H.D. 1, 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 Housing and Health,

 

________________________________

JOSH GREEN, Chair

 

________________________________

SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair