STAND. COM. REP. NO. 198-26

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2026

RE: H.B. No. 2498

H.D. 1

Honorable Nadine K. Nakamura

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2026

State of Hawaii

Madame:

Your Committee on Public Safety, to which was referred H.B. No. 2498 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CARE HOMES,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to require the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency, in coordination with the Office of Health Care Assurance of the Department of Health, to establish the Central Oahu Care Home Community Resilience Pilot Program.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaiʻi Emergency Management Agency; Hawaii Insurers Council; and Navian Hawaii. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Health and State Long-Term Care Ombudsman.

Your Committee finds that the Central Oahu Care Home Community Resilience Pilot Program established by this measure addresses a critical and increasingly urgent gap in Hawaii's disaster-preparedness framework: the resilience of licensed care homes serving kupuna, individuals with disabilities, and medically fragile residents. Many of these facilities operate in aging structures, have limited financial resources, and serve residents who cannot safely evacuate or endure prolonged power outages without significant risk to life and health. This measure offers a first step toward filling that gap.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Repealing the Central Oahu Care Home Community Resilience Pilot Program on June 30, 2031; and

(2) Changing its effective date to July 1, 3000, to encourage further discussion.

Your Committee respectfully requests your Committee on Human Services, should it deliberate on this measure, to consider further clarifying the definition of "kupuna."

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Public Safety that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2498, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2498, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Human Services & Homelessness.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Public Safety,

____________________________

DELLA AU BELATTI, Chair