STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1310

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: H.B. No. 1486

H.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2023

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Health and Human Services, to which was referred H.B. No. 1486, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE KUPUNA CARE PROGRAM,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds to the Department of Health for the Kupuna Care Program within the Executive Office on Aging.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Executive Office on Aging, Disability and Communication Access Board, Catholic Charities Hawai‘i, Alzheimer’s Association – Hawaii, Rainbow Family 808, Hawai‘i Family Caregiver Coalition, and more than three hundred individuals.

Your Committee finds that the Kupuna Care Program assists older adults and their caregivers with much needed home- and community-based services to kupuna aged sixty years and older, who have two or more deficits in Activities of Daily Living or Instrumental Activities of Daily Living. The program provides various services to the State's kupuna, including personal care, attendant care, chore, homemaker, case management, home-delivered meals, adult day care, transportation, and respite care, as well as support services for caregivers. Your Committee finds that in 2021, the base budget for the Kupuna Care Program was reduced by approximately $1,800,000. This measure aims to restore funding for the program to pre-pandemic levels, thereby allowing the Executive Office on Aging to provide kupuna and their caregivers with the much needed care services.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health and Human Services that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1486, H.D. 1, and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

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

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JOY A. SAN BUENAVENTURA, Chair