STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1287

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 1207

       H.D. 1

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2013

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Human Services, to which was referred H.B. No. 1207, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HUMAN SERVICES,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to require the Department of Human Services to submit interim reports to the Legislature prior to the Regular Sessions of 2014, 2015, and 2016, and a final report to the Legislature prior to the Regular Session of 2017 on its compliance with the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 as it relates to Medicare and Medicaid.

     Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Human Services.

     Your Committee finds that fraud, abuse, and waste cost state Medicaid programs an estimated $18,000,000,000 per year on a national level.  Problems of fraud, abuse, and waste within Medicaid programs have led to higher costs for each state during the critical time of actuarial rate analysis and the setting of managed care health plan contracts. 

     Your Committee further finds that the Department of Human Services takes program integrity seriously as well as its responsibility as stewards of taxpayers' monies.  Currently, the Department is compliant with federal program integrity requirements.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Deleting language that would have required the Department of Human Services to submit an interim report to the Legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2014;

     (2)  Adding language that clarifies that the Department include in its interim reports the Department's timelines and plans for compliance with the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 for fiscal years 2013-2014, 2014-2015, and 2015-2016;

     (3)  Deleting language that would have required information for fiscal year 2012-2013 to be included in the Department's report;

     (4)  Amending the information required in the Department's reports, including the Department's compliance status with various provisions of the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010;

     (5)  Inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion; and

     (6)  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 H.B. No. 1207, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1207, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Human Services,

____________________________

SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair