The Senate Ways and Means Committee deferred action Wednesday on a bill that would dismantle the statewide rural hospital system over the two years. Critics of the bill say Hawaii Health System Corporation has done a good job cutting losses
The Senate Ways and Means Committee deferred action Wednesday on a bill that would dismantle the statewide rural hospital system over the two years.
Critics of the bill say Hawaii Health System Corporation has done a good job cutting losses and managing the 12 rural hospitals, including Samuel Mahelona Hospital in Kapa’a and the Kauai Veterans Memorial Hospital in Waimea, and that approval of the bill will leave rural health care in Hawai’i in shambles.
Sen. Brian Taniguchi, who heads the Senate Ways and Means Committee, said the bill was deferred because the committee members had concerns about the financial impact of the bill. The measure proposes the use of $49 million in state funds to set up management boards for the hospitals.
“We just got the bill, and we want to look at it. We didn’t get a chance to talk about the original contents of the bill (before it was amended),” Taniguchi said.
The committee is scheduled to take up the bill next Tuesday, deciding whether to kill it or to move it forward for legislative conference committees.
The bill has triggered opposition from Mayor Maryanne Kusaka and the Kaua’i County Council.
Kusaka sent to the Legislature documents expressing her opposition to the bill, said her administrative assistant, Wallace Rezentes Sr.
Kaua’i County Councilman Ron Kouchi said a letter signed by all members of the Council opposing the bill was sent to the Senate Committee Wednesday.
In place of HHSC, the bill proposes management boards for each island at a cost of $49 million.
The bill also proposes a $38 million general obligation bond for repairs at Maui Memorial Medical Center and a $20 million general obligation bond for long-term care facilities at Hilo Medical Center on the Big Island.
Members of a Kaua’i advisory board with the HHSC have warned the breakup of the system would dramatically increase the cost of medical care for Kauaians and affect the quality of services.
Diane Plotts, chairperson of the HHSC board of trustees, said the measure was “an ill-advised bill which will take us backward and negates all of the improvements and advances we have been able to accomplish over the past six, short years as a unified system.”
“The system is working just fine and in some areas, it is doing exceptionally well,” Plotts said.
Albert Nishimura, chairman for the East Hawai’i Management Advisory Committee of HHSC, echoed her thoughts.
When the counties ran the hospitals under the state Department of Health in the past, “it was a nightmare for them administratively and financially. I can’t seem them jumping back into the fray,” Nishimura said.
Bob Valencia, vice chairman for the Kaua’i Management Advisory Group, said medical care the two Kaua’i hospitals would decline dramatically if HHSC closes. “Our strength is in operating as a team of 12 hospitals, Valencia said.
Without the HHSC, the “safety net of care that has been stabilized since HHSC was created will again become chaos,” said Bill Wood, chairman of the O’ahu Management Advisory Committee.
“The system is critical to assuring access to care for all of Hawai’i’s residents,” he said. “Without massive input of state funds annually, the separated system is doomed.”
The breakup of the HHSC will not only affect acute and long-term care services at rural hospitals, but will severely impact Oahu’s major long-term care facilities, HHSC officials said.
Only Herb Sakakihara, chairman of the Maui region Management Advisory Committee, withheld criticism of the bill.
But he noted the $38 million general obligation bonds for repairs at Maui Medical is badly needed and is the kind of support that will keep the system of rural hospitals running strong and will improve the quality of care to residents of all islands.
Sen. David Matsuura, who heads the Senate’s Health and Human Services Committee, questions by some senators over the financial state of the hospitals under HHSC and bonuses given to employees in part prompted introduction of the amended bill.
Matsuura said his committee introduced the measure because other Senate members felt an earlier bill proposing to separating three Maui County hospitals from the HHSC system would not have popular support.
While other HHSC hospitals have posted revenue losses and have required subsidy to operate, Maui Memorial Medical Center has become the most profitable hospital in the HHSC system. The hospital has shown a profit over the past four years.
Supporters of the first bill said the profits made by Maui Memorial should only benefit that hospital and Kula and Lanai community hospitals.
In spite of overwhelming testimony against it, the bill was sent to the Senate Health Committee, which deferred the bill, essentially killing it, and drafted the second bill.
HHSC was established in 1996 as a public benefit corporation of the state to cut heavy losses by rural state hospitals when they operated under the state.
HHSC also provides quality health care in locations where private hospitals are unwilling or unable to serve.
