Bill Text: HI SB2605 | 2012 | Regular Session | Amended

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Bill Title: Oral Health; Dentists; Public Schools; Medicaid; Appropriations

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 4-0)

Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2012-03-08 - (H) Referred to HLT/HUS, FIN, referral sheet 41 [SB2605 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2012-SB2605-Amended.html

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STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2770

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 2605

       S.D. 2

 

 

 

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2012

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 2605, S.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ORAL HEALTH,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to promote oral health by:

 

(1)  Requiring the Department of Health to educate the public about proper oral hygiene for children; and

 

(2)  Appropriating funds for an electronic system to track data on children's dental health.

 

     This measure also provides that the fees the State pays to dentists for services provided to public assistance recipients are to be determined by the Department of Human Services, rather than the medicaid fee schedule.

 

Your Committee received written comments in support of this measure from Good Beginnings Alliance.

 

Your Committee finds that Hawaii is last among states for children's dental health due, in part, to lack of education and lack of a system for tracking children's dental health.  Your Committee finds that education provided by the Department of Health and the Hawaiian Islands Oral Health Task Force will increase public awareness of proper oral hygiene for children and will decrease the rate of tooth decay in Hawaii.  Your Committee also finds that appropriating funds for an electronic system to track children's dental health will assist the State in targeting programs to reduce tooth decay and other dental problems.

 

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

(1)  Requiring the Department of Health, Family Health Services Division, with the assistance of the Hawaiian Islands Oral Health Task Force, to perform the public education program;

 

(2)  Specifying that the portion of the public education program regarding dental sealants concerns sealants for children not exceeding eighteen years of age;

 

(3)  Requiring education about regular semiannual dental visits instead of annual dental visits;

 

(4)  Changing the effective date to July 1, 2050, to promote further discussion; and

 

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

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2605, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2605, S.D. 2.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

 

		____________________________ DAVID Y. IGE, Chair