CONFERENCE COMMITTEE REP. NO. 112

Honolulu, Hawaii

                 , 2015

RE:    H.B. No. 581

       H.D. 1

       S.D. 2

       C.D. 1

Honorable Joseph M. Souki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

Sir and Madam:

     Your Committee on Conference on the disagreeing vote of the House of Representatives to the amendments proposed by the Senate in H.B. No. 581, H.D. 1, S.D. 2, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE HOSPITAL SUSTAINABILITY PROGRAM,"

having met, and after full and free discussion, has agreed to recommend and does recommend to the respective Houses the final passage of this bill in an amended form.

     The purpose of this measure is to:

(1) Continue the Hospital Sustainability Program by extending the program for an additional year;

(2) Update and clarify language regarding payments and reimbursements from the Hospital Sustainability Program Special Fund (Special Fund) and liability for the Hospital Sustainability Fee;

(3) Reduce the inpatient Hospital Sustainability Fee to be 1.892 percent of net inpatient hospital service revenue;

(4)  Increase the amount of direct payments from the Special Fund to $88,000,000 for private hospitals to cover uncompensated care costs and specify an upper payment limit payment amount of $3,975,442 for designated Level II trauma centers;

(5)  Specify that eligible hospitals shall receive payments from the Special Fund based on their Medicaid utilization; and

(6)  Appropriate $50,000,000 from the Special Fund to the Hospital Sustainability Program for fiscal year 2015-2016.

Your Committee on Conference has amended this measure by:

(1)  Changing its effective date to July 1, 2015; and

(2)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for clarity, consistency, and style.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the managers of your Committee on Conference that is attached to this report, your Committee on Conference is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 581, H.D. 1, S.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Final Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 581, H.D. 1, S.D. 2, C.D. 1.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the managers:

ON THE PART OF THE SENATE

ON THE PART OF THE HOUSE

____________________________ JOSH GREEN, Chair	____________________________ DELLA AU BELATTI, Co-Chair
____________________________ SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Co-Chair	____________________________ BERTRAND KOBAYASHI, Co-Chair
____________________________ J. KALANI ENGLISH, Co-Chair