STAND

 

STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2051

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2006

RE: S.B. No. 2338

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2006

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 2338 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT MAKING AN EMERGENCY APPROPRIATION TO THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH FOR THE DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES DIVISION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to make an emergency appropriation to the Department of Health for the State's medicaid home and community-based services for the developmentally disabled or mentally retarded program, also known as the title XIX waiver program.

Your Committee finds that a critical funding emergency exists for the Developmental Disabilities Division of the Department of Health due to an increase in the anticipated admissions to the medicaid waiver program. This increase in admissions is a result of the settlement agreement in HDRC v. State, Civil No. 03-00524 HG-KSC, in August 2005, under which the Department of Health must continue to reasonably admit individuals with mental retardation or developmental disabilities into the medicaid waiver program, a program that matches state funds with federal funds to meet the needs of disabled individuals so that they may live in the community.

Your Committee believes that this emergency appropriation will enable the State to comply with the settlement agreement, Chapter 333F, Hawaii Revised Statutes, and the United States Supreme Court's decision in Olmstead v. Zimring, 527 U.S. 581 (1999).

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. 2338 and recommends that it pass Third Reading.

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

		____________________________ BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair