Bill Text: HI HB2274 | 2012 | Regular Session | Amended

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Bill Title: Long-Term Care Facilities; Nursing Sustainability Fee; Nursing Facility Sustainability Program Special Fund

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 4-0)

Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2012-03-23 - (S) Report adopted; Passed Second Reading, as amended (SD 1) and referred to WAM. [HB2274 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2012-HB2274-Amended.html

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STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2958

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 2274

       H.D. 2

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2012

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committees on Human Services and Health, to which was referred H.B. No. 2274, H.D. 2, entitled:

 

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

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to ensure access to health care for Medicaid recipients by establishing a nursing facility sustainability fee and special fund in which nursing sustainability fees shall be deposited in order to receive federal Medicaid matching funds under the QUEST Expanded Medicaid Section 1115 Demonstration Waiver.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Human Services, Hale Makua Health Services, Hawaii Health Systems Corporation, Hawaii Long Term Care Association, Healthcare Association of Hawaii, and United Self Help.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Budget and Finance.

 

     Your Committees find that Medicaid is a critical component of Hawaii's health care system because it pays for medical care for more than one in five Hawaii residents.  However, Medicaid reimbursements to nursing facilities are less than the actual costs facilities incur in providing care to Medicaid patients.  On average, Hawaii's Medicaid program pays nursing facilities $7 to $8 less than the actual costs of care per patient per day.  With Medicaid patients representing seventy percent of all nursing facility patients, nursing facilities incur substantial losses annually.

 

     Your Committees also find that states commonly use provider assessments to leverage federal funds through Medicaid.  This measure would establish a provider fee to allow the State to obtain additional federal matching funds that will reduce the amount of losses incurred by nursing facilities.

 

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Changing the effective date from July 1, 2030, to January 1, 2050, to ensure further discussion; and

 

     (2)  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 Health that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2274, H.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2274, H.D. 2, 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 Health,

 

____________________________ JOSH GREEN, M.D., Chair		____________________________ SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair