STAND. COM. REP. 251

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2003

RE: H.B. No. 844

 

 

 

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Human Services and Housing and Health, to which was referred H.B. No. 844 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT MAKING AN APPROPRIATION FOR NURSING HOME WITHOUT WALLS,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to appropriate funds for fiscal years 2003-2004 and 2004-2005, for a full-time registered nurse case manager and clerical support staff to provide services to clients under the Department of Human Services' Nursing Home Without Walls Program on Molokai and Lanai.

Testimony in support of this bill was submitted by the Molokai Family Health Center. The Department of Human Services testified in support of the intent of the bill.

Your Committees find that there is a need for Nursing Home Without Walls offices on Molokai and Lanai; on Molokai, 80 percent of the population are Medicaid beneficiaries. Your Committees further find that this bill will result in an overall savings to the State health system, by providing preventive care that will reduce hospitalization of the many chronically ill Medicaid patients.

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. 844 and recommend that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Finance.

 

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

 

____________________________

DENNIS A. ARAKAKI, Chair

____________________________

MICHAEL PUAMAMO KAHIKINA, Chair