STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2930

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 3239

S.D. 2

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2024

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 3239, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO MEDICAL DEBT,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to require and appropriate moneys for the Office of Wellness and Resilience to design and implement a three-year pilot program, in collaboration with health care providers, to acquire and forgive outstanding medical debt.

Your Committee received written comments in support of this measure from the Office of Wellness and Resilience, State Health Planning and Development Agency, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, The Queen's Health System, Healthcare Association of Hawaii, Aloha United Way, Hawaii Health and Harm Reduction Center, and three individuals.

Your Committee recognizes that medical debt can be a crushing burden on a person's mental health and physical well-being. Your Committee finds it appropriate for the State to help alleviate this financial burden that many Hawaii residents carry.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Authorizing the Office of Wellness and Resilience to develop, implement, and execute a permanent program, rather than a pilot program, to acquire and forgive outstanding medical debt;

(2) Deleting language that would have required the Office of Wellness and Resilience to collaborate with health care providers in the design and implementation of the pilot program;

(3) Authorizing the Office of Wellness and Resilience to contract with an entity with demonstrated experience partnering with hospitals and health systems to acquire and forgive outstanding medical debt;

(4) Specifying that the program acquire and forgive the medical debt of households at no more than four hundred percent of the federal poverty level, or households with a medical debt balance of five percent or more of household income;

(5) Establishing certain medical privacy requirements;

(6) Authorizing the Office of Wellness and Resilience to receive private funds, federal funds, and any funds appropriated by the Legislature for the purpose of acquiring and forgiving outstanding medical debt;

(7) Requiring the Office of Wellness and Resilience to submit annual progress reports to the Legislature;

(8) Deleting the measure's appropriation; and

(9) Making technical nonsubstantive changes for purposes of clarity, consistency, and style.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 3239, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 3239, S.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

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DONOVAN M. DELA CRUZ, Chair