Bill Text: HI SB788 | 2012 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Health; Medicaid Eligibility; Appropriation
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 17-0)
Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2011-12-01 - Carried over to 2012 Regular Session. [SB788 Detail]
Download: Hawaii-2012-SB788-Amended.html
STAND. COM. REP. NO. 226
Honolulu, Hawaii
RE: S.B. No. 788
S.D. 1
Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui
President of the Senate
Twenty-Sixth State Legislature
Regular Session of 2011
State of Hawaii
Sir:
Your Committee on Human Services, to which was referred S.B. No. 788 entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HEALTH,"
begs leave to report as follows:
The purpose and intent of this measure is to:
(1) Require the Department of Human Services to provide Medicaid presumptive eligibility to patients who have been waitlisted for long-term care until July 1, 2016;
(2) Require the Department of Human Services to conduct a study that examines the potential implementation of a computerized system to process Medicaid applications; and
(3) Appropriate funds to the Department of Human Services to cover the cost of any reimbursements made to providers or plans for services provided during the time that waitlisted patients are enrolled and eventually disenrolled due to a determination of ineligibiilty.
Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from Kaiser Permanente, the Healthcare Association of Hawaii, Hawai‘i Pacific Health, The Queen's Medical Center, the Hawaii Coalition for Health and Hawaii Congress of Physicians, Hawaii Disability Rights Center, and an individual. Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Department of Human Services.
Your Committee finds that Hawaii hospitals have lost millions of dollars due to delays in discharging patients waitlisted for long-term care. Waitlisting is undesirable because it represents an inappropriate quality of care for the patient and creates a serious financial drain on hospitals. Discharge time frames for waitlisted patients can range from days to over a year.
Your Committee further finds that the Medicaid eligibility and re-eligibility application process in Hawaii is unable to handle the current volume of applications. Developing a long-term solution to severe problems associated with processing Medicaid applications would ease some of the burden that is placed on hospitals due to the limitations in Hawaii's Medicaid eligibility process.
Your Committee has amended this measure by making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.
As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Human Services that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 788, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 788, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Human Services,
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____________________________ SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair |
