Friday, December 26, 2008

Link to Draft Report for JLCAIP

Here is the link to a .pdf of the draft report to be considered by the Joint Legislative Committee on Aging in Place on December 30 at 2:00pm in conference room 229.

http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/session2009/misc/jlcaip/jlcaip2008draftreport.pdf

Please send any comments to bolan@capitol.hawaii.gov by December 29, 2008.

Mahalo.

Monday, December 22, 2008

Joint Legislative Committee on Aging in Place - meeting December 30

The Joint Legislative Committee on Aging in Place will meet at 2:00pm on Tuesday, December 30, 2008 in state capitol conference room 229 to review a draft of the JLCAIP's report to the 2009 Legislature. The draft report should be available electronically by December 26 and a link will be posted on this blog.

Persons who wish to submit comments or who have questions are asked to contact Senator Les Ihara's office at 586-6250. A copy of the JLCAIP notice can be found at:
http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/session2009/hearingnotices/HEARING_JLCAIP_12-30-08_INFO_.HTM

Tuesday, December 09, 2008

Family Leave Working Group meeting - December 17

The Family Leave Working Group will meet Wednesday, December 17, 2008 at 2:00pm in Hawaii State Capitol Room 224. The public is welcome.

The Working Group was established by Act 243, 2008 to explore the provision of wage replacement benefits to employees who need to take time off from work to care for a family member with a serious health condition. The agenda includes discussion of a legislative proposal by the Society for Human Resources Management, a legislative proposal by the Kokua Council and ILWU, and a review of the Working Group's draft report to the Legislature.

Persons who wish to submit testimony or have questions are asked to contact Representative Marilyn Lee's office at 586-9460. A copy of the hearing notice can be found at:
http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/site1/studies/commjlcaip.asp

QExA hearing to be televised today—tune in

Tune in to the hearing today on the QExA program right from your home TV or computer.

The hearing will be broadcast from 9:00 to 3:00 p.m. on `Olelo channel 53, or you can click here to watch the streaming video right on your computer.

According to the hearing notice:

The purpose of this informational briefing is to review and gain legislative and public insight into the recent awarding of a $1.5 billion Medicaid contract covering 37,000 Aged, Blind and Disabled (ADB) population to two for-profit companies. The Department of Human Services (DHS) will switch health services for 37,000 elderly, disabled and blind residents to UnitedHealth Group Inc., of Minneapolis, Minnesota and WellCare Health Plans Inc., of Tampa, Florida, both publicly-traded companies. Concerns and questions have been raised by the public, patients, healthcare providers and consumer groups, regarding the process of moving this vulnerable healthcare population from a current State run fee-for-services program to a managed/coordinated care contract awarded to two for-profit insurance companies that may not have significant cultural understanding and operations in Hawaii. Concerns have also been raised by the public regarding recent investigations of these for-profits by numerous states including but not limited to, Florida and California, and the Federal authorities about possible government overpayments, underpayments to providers, denial of benefits, management shortcomings, waste, and fraud. With the current turbulent stock market, the financial integrity and solvency of the two for-profit entities may also become an issue.

Monday, December 08, 2008

No December meeting

We’ll be back in January to continue our series of monthly meetings.

December is the month the Board goes on retreat and works on prioritizing issues for the upcoming legislative session.

Please keep visiting this website for news on meetings held at the State Capitol and elsewhere. You can also subscribe via email using the little box over on the right side of this page. Or put our RSS feed in your news reader program to be notified automatically.

November 24 Meeting: Helping the Elderly in an Economic Recession

5th Community Forum speakers


Click here to listen.



Speakers: Jim Shon, Noemi Pendelton




Notes:

Jim Shon:

Expect plenty of bills favoring gambling.

Legislative task forces are exploring issues that can lay the foundation for future legislation:

• Paid Family Leave for caregiver employees. Hawaii’s leave policy only covers firms with over 100 employees, 40 % of workforce. Need to gather more data.
• Building Assets for seniors. Exploring ways to educate seniors.
• Taskforce to re-evaluate case managers fees, communication with family members, paper work.

Other Task forces:

• Grandparents Raising Grandchildren: services, permissions and respite
• Cash and Counseling Project: Consumer directed choice
• Home Medical Equipment Project: Licensing and oversight

Noemi Pendleton, Director EOA, Helping the Elderly in an Economic Recession:

Everyone can do their part by donating their time, talents, money, and needed items to organizations in the aging network that provide services to the elderly. Advocacy for kupuna issues is helpful especially during this financial time. We can all collaboratively kokua for the benefit of our kupuna.

EOA, along with the U.S. Administration on Aging (AoA), National Association of State Units on Aging (NASUA) and National Association of Area Agencies on Aging (N4A), is working towards the “3 Legged Stool” or known nationally as Project 2020.

To address the aging population and the financial situation, this 3-pronged approach includes:

1) Person-Centered Access to Information such as an Aging and Disability Resource Center (ADRC). A one stop shop can provide outreach, information, resources, and educational materials to the older adults and people with disabilities; Hilo has a physical ADRC and Honolulu will have a virtual ADRC;
2) Evidence-Based Disease Prevention and Health Promotion – Promotes health and wellness programs for healthy aging and saves money in the long run as it helps prevent chronic disease; the Stanford Chronic Disease Self-management program is implemented statewide and Enhance Fitness is offered in Kauai;
3) Enhanced Nursing Home Diversion Services such as cash and counseling in which EOA funded a study on this program.

These programs will empower individuals to make informed decisions and to better conserve and extend their own resources using lower cost evidence-based programs, including consumer-directed options for care in the community. The 3-pronged approach would also generate significant savings for state and federal governments.”

FREE: Seminar for Grandparents Raising Grandchildren

Attorneys from Legal Aid Society of Hawai'i will speak on issues such as visitation rights, power of attorney, child protective services, guardianship, adoption, and social security. Attorneys from the Child Support Enforcement Agency will also be available to answer questions. Participants will receive a free resource kit with information on family caregiving, health care for children, legal matters, and much more. Registration is not required.

*Lahaina, Maui: Tuesday, December 9, 2008 at Lahaina Civic Center 1840 Honoapi'ilani Highway, Lahaina

*Kahului, Maui: Wednesday, December 10, 2008 at J. Walter Cameron Center Auditorium 95 Mahalani Street, Wailuku

*Punalu'u, O'ahu: Thursday, December 11, 2008 at Queen Lili'uokalani Children's Center 53-516 Kamehameha Highway, Hau'ula

All workshops start at 9:00am and conclude at 11:15am.

For more information, please contact the Executive Office on Aging at (808) 586-0100.

Saturday, December 06, 2008

Kokua Council asks legislators to avert Hawaii Medicaid crisis

Kokua Council today asked lawmakers to act to protect the well-being of 37,000 Medicaid-eligible Aged, Blind and Disabled (ADB) citizens of Hawaii whom the Department of Human Services will involuntarily switch to two for-profit Mainland-contracted HMOs in February 2009.

Unless the Legislature intervenes, these patients will be required to give up their current doctors and switch to physicians who agree to contract with either UnitedHealth Group Inc., of Minneapolis, Minnesota or WellCare Health Plans Inc., of Tampa, Florida. It is likely that many physicians may not contract with either. All Kaiser patients will lose their physicians because Kaiser will not participate. The Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center has not yet agreed to participate. Many patients may not be able to find doctors near them at all.

“A bidding process that results in cutting off services to some patients and disrupts care to others while transferring business to these two out-of-state vendors is fundamentally flawed,” said Larry Geller, President of Kokua Council. “Many patients will find some of their doctors signed up with their plan but others with the other plan, or some doctors not participating with either. Particularly on Neighbor Islands, if physicians or hospitals decline to sign up with both of the two mainland HMOs, patients will be left without any care at all.”

The problem could exacerbate the already critical shortage of specialists on Neighbor Islands, placing Hawaii’s most vulnerable patients at risk.

Kokua Council is concerned that patients may be left without services if it turns out that these HMOs do not have proper authority to operate in Hawai'i. State law requires all HMOs to obtain a certificate of authority from the State insurance commissioner before they can operate in the State. Our understanding is that neither plan has obtained such a certificate.

In order to operate in Hawaii the two HMOs would have to provide medically necessary care as defined in the Hawai'i Patients’ Bill of Rights and Responsibilities. Yet it’s not clear that the HMOs’ proposed agreements with physicians meet the legal requirements. DHS may also run afoul of the law if it returns State excise taxes to the HMOs as is planned. Hawai'i law expressly exempts mutual benefit societies from paying such taxes but the exemption does not extend to these for-profit mainland companies.

Kokua Council wonders why the State agreed to huge multi-million dollar contracts to for-profit mainland corporations that do not have a clean record of dealings with the states in which they have operated. This is particularly questionable today when the State is facing enormous economic problems and when the money could much more wisely be spent in Hawai'i.

A hearing at the State Capitol on December 9 (9 a.m. – 3 p.m., Room 229) will gather information before the legislative session begins in January. The questions raised here must be answered clearly and positively or the Legislature must quickly take steps to reverse the QExA program.

Kokua Council has deep concerns about the well-being of the ADB population for the following additional reasons:

  • Although the majority of patients are senior citizens, very few geriatricians have signed up. Senior citizens cannot travel long distances to find participating doctors.

· We understand that no hospitals have signed agreements yet with either HMO.

· It’s not clear that either organization will meet the requirements to be licensed in Hawaii as an HMO.

  • DHS has awarded a contract to WellCare Health Plans, Inc., despite a Forbes report that it “has been under a cloud since October 2007, when federal and state agents raided the company’s Tampa headquarters” and despite the grade of F given to it by the independent rating organization, Morningstar, for stewardship.
  • DHS awarded a contract to UnitedHealth Group although its subsidiaries have been reported to be assessed fines or agreed to settlements in Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin, according to the Northwest Federation of Community Organizations. In addition, multiple UNH subsidiaries entered an agreement with 39 states regarding handling of claims, complaints, explanation of benefits, accurate provider network information, and other issues. Shouldn’t DHS have considered these actions before awarding contracts to these companies?

Kokua Council’s message urged the Legislature to move quickly to preserve the quality of medical care for Hawaii’s most vulnerable citizens

Monday, December 01, 2008

Kupuna Caucus/Joint Legislative Committee on Aging in Place - meeting December 5

The Kupuna Caucus and the Joint Legislative Committee on Aging in Place will meet at 2:00pm on Friday, December 5, 2008 in state capitol conference room 229 to receive reports and updates on state-funded senior centers, Family Leave Working Group, Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Task Force, Long Term Care Commission, Cash and Counseling, and home medical equipment. The Kupuna Caucus will also vote on items to include in the 2009 legislative package. The Joint Legislative Committee on Aging in Place will also discuss its report to the Legislature.

Persons who wish to submit testimony or who have questions are asked to contact Senator Les Ihara's office at 586-6250. A copy of the JLCAIP notice can be found at: http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/session2008/hearingnotices/JLCAIP_12-5-08_.htm

Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Task Force meeting - December 5

The Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Task Force will meet Friday, December 5, 2008 at 11:30am in Hawaii State Capitol Room 229. The public is welcome.

The Task Force was established by Act 220, 2008 to focus on the needs and issues of grandparents raising grandchildren. The Task Force plans to hear a report on exit orientations for parents released from incarceration, review suggestions for an outline of a report to the Legislature, and receive comments about the issue of grandparent visitation.

Persons who wish to submit testimony or have questions are asked to contact Senator Les Ihara's office at 586-6250. A copy of the hearing notice may be found at: http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/site1/studies/commjlcaip.asp

Family Leave Working Group meeting - December 2

The Family Leave Working Group will meet Tuesday, December 2, 2008 at 1:00pm in Hawaii State capitol Room 016. The public is welcome.

The Working Group was established by Act 243, 2008 to explore the provision of wage replacement benefits to employees who need to take time off from work to care for a family member with a serious health condition. The working group will meet to receive a presentation on the adequacy of the current long-term care system and discuss legislative proposals.

Persons who wish to submit testimony or have questions are asked to contact Representative Marilyn Lee's office at 586-9460. A copy of the hearing notice can be found at: http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/site1/studies/commjlcaip.asp