STAND. COM. REP. NO. 315

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 283

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2021

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Health and Human Services, to which was referred S.B. No. 283 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HEALTH,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

(1) Require Medicaid and insurance coverage of ambulance services;

(2) Authorize Medicaid programs, and require private insurers, to pay for community paramedicine services provided by emergency medical technicians or paramedics; and

(3) Appropriate monies for costs resulting from Medicaid coverage of ambulance service and community paramedicine services provided by emergency medical technicians or paramedics.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from Hawaii Medical Service Association, Kaiser Permanente Hawaii, American Medical Response, and four individuals. Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Department of Health, and Department of Human Services.

Your Committees find that community paramedicine programs can help address a few important issues in healthcare, such as improving access to primary and preventive care, ensuring that services are triaged appropriately, and alleviating the overburdened hospital emergency department. This measure mandates Medicaid and insurance coverage of ambulance and community paramedicine services.

Your Committees heard the testimony of the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, which noted that a measure that mandates health insurance coverage for specific health services requires the Auditor to prepare and submit a report to the Legislature that assesses both the social and financial effects of the proposed mandated coverage.

Therefore, your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Requiring the Auditor to prepare a report that assesses the social and financial effects of mandating coverage of ambulance and community paramedicine services; and

(2) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Health and Human Services that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 283, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 283, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committees on Ways and Means and Commerce and Consumer Protection.

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

________________________________ JOY A. SAN BUENAVENTURA, Chair

________________________________ JARRETT KEOHOKALOLE, Chair