STAND. COM. REP. NO. 117

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 528

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2017

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committees on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health and Human Services, to which was referred S.B. No. 528 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO AGING,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to support Hawaii's constantly growing aging population by appropriating funds to the Department of Health for the Kupuna Care Program.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Executive Office on Aging; Maui County Office on Aging; Elderly Affairs Division of the Department of Community Services, City and County of Honolulu; Alzheimer's Association, Aloha Chapter; Healthcare Association of Hawaii; AARP Hawaii; Lanakila Pacific; Catholic Charities Hawai‘i; Child and Family Service; Policy Advisory Board for Elder Affairs; International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 142 Hawaii; and sixteen individuals.

     Your Committees find that the Kupuna Care Program assists frail adults age sixty and older with leading independent, meaningful, and dignified lives by providing a continuum of home and community based services and supports.  In 2015, the program served 4,872 kupuna in Hawaii, providing these seniors with access to a consistent continuum of care as their access to resources, their support systems, and individual capacity change over time.  Your Committees received testimony from the Executive Office on Aging indicating that without the requested funding, the Kupuna Care Program would have to reduce services by forty-four percent and would only be capable of serving 2,744 seniors.

     Your Committees find that the Kupuna Care Program aims to allow Hawaii's kupuna to age in place and prevent or delay the need for restrictive levels of care.  Keeping seniors healthy and at home is the most cost-effective way to address the rapidly increasing population of adults age sixty and older in the State.  Your Committees further find that the Kupuna Care Program utilizes a comprehensive person-centered approach, and has core services to support individuals in need of assistance to perform daily activities but also has participant-directed services that allow kupuna to exercise decision-making authority over how to use their allotment of public funds.  Funding the Kupuna Care Program is crucial to allowing Hawaii's seniors to remain in the community and will enable the Executive Office on Aging to target and triage additional clients according to each individual's vulnerability by utilizing tools developed statewide for targeting public supports to persons in greatest need.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health and Human Services that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 528 and recommend that it pass Second Reading and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health and Human Services,

________________________________ JOSH GREEN, Chair

________________________________ ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair