STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2084

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2541

       S.D. 1

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2008

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committees on Human Services and Public Housing and Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 2541 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO DENTAL CARE,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to:

     (1)  Expand coverage under the Medicaid and QUEST programs to include comprehensive dental care coverage for eligible persons twenty-one years of age or older, and appropriate funds therefor;

     (2)  Require the Department of Health to establish a one-year pilot program to gather information on hospital dentistry for the developmentally disabled in the County of Hawaii, and appropriates funds therefor; and

     (3)  Establish a task force to develop ways to recruit and retain dental care practitioners.

     Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the State Council on Developmental Disabilities, the East and West Hawaii Developmental Disabilities Committees and the Hawaii Oral Health Task Force, the Life Foundation, The Arc in Hawaii, and five private citizens.  Comments on the measure were submitted by the Department of Human Services. 

     Your Committees find that this measure would help to alleviate on-going dental care issues facing Medicaid and QUEST recipients, and that services currently available do not meet the needs of those who suffer from acute and emergent dental conditions. 

     Your Committees have amended this measure by making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and style.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Human Services and Public Housing and Health that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2541, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2541, 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 Public Housing and Health,

____________________________ DAVID Y. IGE, Chair

____________________________ SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair