STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1434

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 943

       H.D. 1

       S.D. 2

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred H.B. No. 943, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE CIVIL MONETARY PENALTY SPECIAL FUND,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to establish a civil monetary penalty special fund consisting of federal fines collected from health facilities and agencies that fail to meet Medicare certification requirements.  This measure also appropriates funds from the special fund for purposes approved by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

     Your Committee finds that the Office of Health Care Assurance receives a share of the federal civil monetary penalties assessed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for federal deficiency citations issued by the Office of Health Care Assurance during a skilled nursing facility's re-certification process.  The federal civil monetary penalties must be used only on programs and projects that are approved by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for activities that protect or improve the quality of care for residents.  Hence, your Committee finds that it would be inappropriate to commingle the federal civil monetary penalties with state funds.  Accordingly, your Committee finds that, rather than amending the Office of Health Care Assurance special fund to receive the federal civil monetary penalties, the establishment of a separate special fund as provided under this measure is necessary.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by amending the effective date to June 29, 2015, and adding language to preserve the amendments made in the measure to sections 36-27 and 36-30, Hawaii Revised Statutes, against future repeals and reenactments to those two sections.

     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 H.B. No. 943, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 943, H.D. 1, S.D. 2.

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

________________________________

JILL N. TOKUDA, Chair