STAND. COM. REP. NO. 129

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 1344

 

 

 

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fifth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2009

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committees on Human Services and Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 1344 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HEALTH CARE,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this measure is to require the Department of Human Services to include in its requests for proposals for QUEST providers various provisions that will safeguard against the disruption of services that may be caused by positive enrollment.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from Aloha Care and Hawaii Primary Care Association.  Testimony in opposition was received from the Department of Human Services.  Copies of written testimony are available for review on the Legislature's website.

 

     Your Committees find that it is important to give QUEST recipients the opportunity to select their health plans and primary care providers.  Positive enrollment requires QUEST recipients to select a health plan and a primary care provider, even if they have done so previously.  The requirement to reenroll in a health plan and primary care provider causes confusion among QUEST recipients, delays in needed health care procedures, disruption of case management services, and loss of contact between enrollees and their primary care providers.

 

     Your Committees find that in order to guard against the adverse consequences of a positive enrollment program, the Department of Human Services must include protective provisions in its requests for proposals for QUEST providers.  Specifically, requests for proposals for QUEST providers issued by the Department of Human Services must require that:

 

     (1)  Existing QUEST recipients shall have sixty days to choose a health plan and primary care provider;

 

     (2)  Five per cent of QUEST recipients who have not enrolled shall be selected at random and automatically assigned to a plan and provider; QUEST recipients who have not enrolled and are not randomly selected shall be reassigned to their former plan and provider;

 

     (3)  QUEST recipients who have not enrolled are allowed time to opt out of the plans to which they were automatically assigned; and

 

     (4)  QUEST recipients automatically assigned to a plan that is not their former plan who accidentally go to a provider under their former plan to receive medical services shall be permitted to receive medical services from that provider.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Human Services and Health that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1344 and recommend that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection.

 

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

 

____________________________

DAVID Y. IGE, Chair

 

____________________________

SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair