STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1150

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 859

       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. 859, 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 make accessible to the public information about vacancies in state-licensed care facilities by:

 

     (1)  Authorizing the Department of Health to maintain a forum on its website where specified state-licensed care facilities may post vacancy information;

 

     (2)  Requiring the Department of Health to convene a working group to discuss and provide feedback on the implementation and maintenance of the forum and posting of vacancy information; and

 

     (3)  Appropriating funds to carry out the purposes of this measure.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Alliance of Residential Care Administrators, Big Island Adult Foster Home Operators, and three individuals.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Health.

 

     Your Committees find that patients in need of care have the right to information about state-licensed care facilities so that patients can determine which facility best meets their individual needs.  Your Committees further find that it would be beneficial to make information about state-licensed care facilities more transparent and available to the public so that individuals in need of care can obtain information about placement options and availability themselves instead of relying on information provided by discharge planners in hospitals or other professionals who may not consider each patient's unique circumstances.

 

     Your Committees have amended this measure by 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. 859, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 859, 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