Lindsey: CEO Should be Talking to OHA Trustees -- Need to Discuss Leadership Succession
Transparency? Waihee Challenged on Kanaiolowalu Enrollment Claims
Sunshine? Bills Slip Through During 'Total Solar Eclipse'
Raise it Higher? GE Tax one among worst practices in fifty states
Hawaii Ranks 47th in New Firm Formation
Hawaii 8th Best State for Women
Ige Appoints Hidano DAGS Deputy Director
Cowardly Honolulu Council May Finally Consider Possibly Weighing in on GE Tax Hike
SA: Elected leaders at Honolulu Hale and the state Capitol have been watching closely to see how their colleagues across Punchbowl Street will respond to rail's budget crisis. (Actually, Legislators are wondering whether the Council was going to accept any political risk for this tax hike.)
Now at least one Honolulu City Council member appears concerned that his chamber might have waited too long to weigh in on a rail tax extension. (Cowards.)
With state lawmakers poised to cast critical rail tax votes next week on the House and Senate floors, Councilman Brandon Elefante, a staunch rail supporter, sent a letter Thursday to Council Chairman Ernie Martin urging him to consider as soon as possible Elefante's resolution supporting a rail tax extension.
Elefante further asked Martin to consider holding a special Council meeting before April 16, a key day at the Legislature when any bills on the rail tax would cross back over to the other chamber for renewed consideration.
read ... Not Really Sticking their Necks out Like they want Legislators to
Star-Adv: HHSC Hospitals Sicker than their patients, Partnership Desperately Needed
SA: The sickest patients in the Hawaii system of public hospitals are the hospitals themselves, which are hemorrhaging losses at an alarmingly increasing rate.
The cure is not going to be easy, but the basic framework of House Bill 1075, which would legally enable the state to transition management of Maui's hospitals to a private partner, represents a strategy the state desperately needs.
It would extricate at least Maui's part of the Hawaii Health Systems Corp. from a fiscal downward spiral. The House should move the measure along for further discussion and refinement once it comes up for a floor vote early next week....
Two factors seem to be propelling the current proposal, and with good reason:
» Lawmakers have been asked to double what it appropriates for the statewide hospital system to cover its losses and subsidize operations, from $100 million to $200 million. The state budget simply can't sustain that kind of overhead, which already has been a drain for a number of years.
» The response from the community is now much more supportive of the privatization idea. Luke said the feedback from Maui this year is much more positive than it had been when Banner was the leading candidate for the partnership.
The Maui Chamber of Commerce, for example, asserted that the partnership could provide "coordinated and cost-effective health care services to our entire community." There was opposition from some (HGEA flacks) who feared reduction in staff and benefits and cited the provision that the state would split with the private partner the cost of capital improvements for 10 years.
But other residents testifying countered with support, adding that they worried instead about the survival of Maui's only major hospital. And that should be the predominant issue. The county needs to consider, first and foremost, the maintenance of health services to its residents....
read ... Pursue Maui health partnership
Partnership: North Hawaii Hospital Shows the Way
HTH: Just more than a year after North Hawaii Community Hospital merged with The Queen’s Health Systems, the Waimea facility is adding new equipment, rebuilding a management team and laying groundwork for stabilizing its workforce. Efforts to recruit badly needed doctors also are moving ahead, although more slowly than many would like, the hospital’s president Ken Graham said in an interview.
Ten of the 13-member management team are new hires, and the remainder recently were promoted from within the hospital, Graham said. New positions of chief medical officer and director of ambulance services were created. Additionally, Graham said he hopes to extend an offer within a week for a director of nurses.
The efforts are designed to bring stability and financial viability to an institution that hemorrhaged an average of $4 million annually and suffered high turnover.
“We’re trying to get past the turnover, bring permanence and work to provide the services everyone cares about,” Graham said.
Upgrading facilities has been integral to the transition plan under the Queen’s system. The hospital recently added three new ultrasound machines that offer sharper 3-D imaging. A new computer building being shipped from the mainland will be placed near the hospital helipad and allow computers across the facility to interface with Queen’s. A new medical records system to be completed in June 2016 also will enable a streamlined exchange of files with Oahu, Graham said. Patients will be able to access their records via cellphones, and the paper charts that currently go off island with transported patients will be a thing of the past, said Krista Anderson, the hospital’s director of communications.
read ... Showing the Way
Partnership: HPH Considers Saving Wahiawa Hospital
SA: HPH — which operates Kapiolani Medical Center for Women & Children, Pali Momi Medical Center, Straub Clinic & Hospital and Wilcox Memorial Hospital on Kauai — has signed a nondisclosure agreement that gives it access to the financial records of the 160-bed rural hospital.
"This is an opportunity for both organizations to explore the potential benefits of a future relationship," HPH spokeswoman Kristen Bonilla said Thursday. The two are in preliminary discussions that could lead to an affiliation, Bonilla said.
"I don't think that Wahiawa will survive without becoming a partner with one of the major health care systems in Hawaii. All the rural hospitals in Hawaii are financially distressed," said Don Olden, chief executive officer at Wahiawa General. "We're in jeopardy of missing payroll. We've already laid off people. The risk (of closure) is way higher at this point than I'm comfortable with."...
A deal could include 28 acres of land to expand Wahiawa General at the site of the proposed Koa Ridge residential development project. Castle & Cooke set aside the land years ago for a replacement of the aging Wahiawa hospital.
"The Koa Ridge Project has been delayed for over a decade and the delays have contributed to the financial stress of (the hospital)," Olden said in a Feb. 27 letter to the Legislature appealing for financial support.
An affiliation has strategic value to HPH and others due to the hospital's patient services and the potential for developing the Koa Ridge project, he said....
If a sale or affiliation doesn't come to fruition, Olden said an alternative is to try to become part of the state-owned HHSC, which itself is barely staying afloat with millions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies....
read ... HPH to the Rescue
Mindless Bureaucracy: Despite Shortage of Long Term Care Beds, SHPDA Blocks New Nursing Home
MN: The State Health Planning and Development Agency has ruled against Regency Namakua's application to build a 40-bed skilled nursing and intermediate-care facility at the Maui Research and Technology Park in Kihei.
The agency decided Monday that Regency Namakua had not demonstrated the need for its proposal on Maui. It said there are a significant number of unused skilled nursing beds on Maui, and that the need for skilled nursing home beds is declining. (Really? That's not what the SHPDA's Hawaii Health Services and Facilities plan says.)
While the state agency has ruled on the project's merits, anyone may request a public hearing for reconsideration of the decision. The deadline to request reconsideration is March 16....
Krieg said an additional 40 nursing home beds are planned as part of the West Maui Hospital and Medical Center projected to open in 2016. (Translation: We are still protecting HHSC.)
Regency Namakua maintained that its project aligned with the Hawaii Health Services and Facilities plan, which cites "an acute shortage of long-term care beds for the elderly as one of the state's primary health concerns." According to Regency, Maui's 75-and-older population is increasing rapidly. The company cited an independent market analysis that projected a need for up to 60 additional skilled nursing beds on Maui in 2013 and up to 130 to 150 additional nursing beds by 2018.
Regency Namakua has purchased nearly 5 acres in the research and technology park for the estimated $7.8 million project. The facility was originally proposed as a 125-bed, long-term care and skilled nursing medical center, but it was scaled back because after existing nursing facility and long-term care providers raised concerns about the size of the facility, according to an earlier statement by Andre Hurst, a managing member of Regency Namakua.
Reality: NRO: President Obama, Hawaii, and Dodgy Certificates (of Need)
read ... Ban the CON
Hawaii gets glowing report from feds for No Child Left Behind waiver
AP: The U.S. Department of Education is giving Hawaii a flawless progress report on reforms that replaced provisions of the federal No Child Left Behind law.
The report, obtained by The Associated Press, shows that Hawaii received the highest mark of "meeting expectations" for all categories of monitoring. Only a handful of states achieved such high scores, the department said.
"The progress that Hawaii has made in its educational transformation is incredible," U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said in a statement Friday. "From instituting afterschool and summer enrichment programs at the state's lowest performing schools to providing direct support to teachers and schools as they transition to the state's new, higher academic standards, educator evaluation system and other reform efforts, Hawaii is a model for the rest of the country."
read ... NCLB Waiver
Hawaii Senate passes bill calling for performance evaluations of chief elections officer
AP: The bill, SB 622, requires the Elections Commission to provide the written performance evaluation to the Legislature. It was introduced after problems during the 2014 elections that included 800 ballots that were missing in Maui and voters in storm-damaged parts of the Big Island who couldn't get to the polls.
The Senate approved the bill Thursday. It now goes to the House.
Democratic Sen. Russell Ruderman, who represents some of the Big Island voters, called the bill a "baby step when a giant step is needed."
"I think we have serious problems in the way the Election Commission does nothing in the face of election problems," Ruderman said. "I watched them do it before my eyes. I watched them do nothing in the face of a disaster in my community." ...
Republican Sen. Sam Slom cast the lone vote against the evaluations bill Thursday, saying evaluations should be done by an independent panel outside of the commission.
"The current panel is poised to reward the chief elections officer for bad behavior," Slom said on the Senate floor before the vote. "They wanted to increase his salary before, and they're currently in negotiations to do that again. We need someone outside of that commission to actually review the work of the commission to make sure they're doing things as required by law."
Sen. Les Ihara, who introduced the bill, said after the vote that Slom is responsible for appointing members to that panel. He added that Slom and Republicans in the House have a disproportionate influence on the appointed commission's composition because the state's small Republican Party gets to appoint the same number of commissioners as the Democrats.
But the commission has limited authority over the chief elections officer because the commission was created by statute, and the elections officer is listed in the state constitution, Ihara said....
read ... Evaluate Nago
Its Legal Now: Abercrombie opens Chinatown office for 'consulting work'
PBN: Abercrombie, 76, said that he has recently started Pacific Strategies LLC, which is a solo practice, although he has some people helping him out.
"I'm in Chinatown [and] I'm loving it down here," he told PBN in an exclusive phone interview Thursday. "I've barely got some furniture [and] can't seem to find anyone who didn't vote for me [over here]."
Abercrombie, who did not win the Democratic party nomination to run for a second term, was recently in Washington D.C., doing some consulting work.
"Anything that I can do to be helpful," he said. "I've got a lot of friends in D.C. and here."
Abercrombie declined to specify who he is helping out and in exactly what way just yet.
"If I could help people here in Washington, I'm going to do that," he said. "I've been contacted by some people to help [them out]."
Abercrombie stressed that his new job does not include any lobbying, and that he is just giving advice and getting the right information for his clients.
"I just have a fee and I do what I need to do," he said. "I tell people what I do and how I can be of service to them." (Translation: Its just like when I was in office. But now its all legal.)
When asked, Abercrombie said that he plans on staying in Hawaii and continuing to do consulting work.
"I have some folks I am working with and we work together on a schedule and under circumstances," he said.
read ... Chinatown
Hawaii commercial solar energy market a race to beat the tax credit deadline
PBN: The commercial solar energy market in Hawaii has turned into a race of sorts, a race for businesses to get their systems in place before a federal tax credit sunsets at the end of 2016.
"Right now for us, we're very busy," Todd Georgopapakas, partner of Honolulu-based Distributed Energy Partners, told PBN. "I don't think we've ever been busier. Every business that hasn't done solar is getting in line. Our backlog is bigger than it has ever been, and it will only increase as we get closer to 2016 when the federal tax credit ends."
State and federal tax credits continue to help the commercial photovoltaic market.
The state tax credit, which has no sunset date, is set at 35 percent, while the federal tax credit, which is scheduled to sunset at the end of 2016, is 30 percent.
"It's foolish for businesses to wait longer, and even if folks start now, it's no promise that these projects will get done by the end of 2016," Georgopapakas said. "The sooner the better before the federal incentive goes away [is what we're telling our prospective customers]. We make them understand that to quickly move forward."
read ... Deadline
With Thousands of Absentee Votes at Stake, Legislators Give Some Get Some from Home Care Industry
CB: House Bill 600 changes the ratio of Medicaid to private-pay clients who are allowed in community care family foster homes, known as CCFFHs.
The state currently lets this type of home have up to three (absentee voting) clients. Two must be on Medicaid and one can pay out of his or her own pocket.
The bill would flip this by allowing two private-pay clients and one Medicaid recipient, which could leave the poor with fewer places to go for long-term care — something health officials highlighted and supporters of the legislation acknowledged...
House Bill 1195 would let the Health Department continue doing something it was supposed to stop doing two years ago — allowing three nursing-facility level residents in an expanded adult residential care home, or E-ARCH.
The care home industry fought for this change in 2010 and succeeded in getting the bill passed over the concerns of health officials who were worried about lessening the level of care each client would receive if there were more people in each home. The law sunset in 2013, but the Department of Health has continued to allow it anyway....
Two of the few places where lawmakers seem to be putting their legislative foot down is regarding the care home industry’s desire to delay posting inspection reports online and to change the minimum age and education requirements for primary and substitute caregivers in CCFFHs.
House Bill 1116, which would have changed the age and education requirements, died without a hearing this session.
Gov. David Ige’s administration on Thursday asked lawmakers to kill legislation that would have given the Health Department a six-month extension to start posting inspection reports for adult care homes on its website. Now, health officials say the office in charge of the bulk of those reports will start posting them by mid-March....
The House Human Services Committee, chaired by Rep. Dee Morikawa, killed House Bill 1115 last month. The legislation would have increased the state payments to ARCHs, CCFFHs and other types of facilities....
Lawmakers similarly balked in this tight budget year when considering House Bill 863, which could have given more resources to people on Medicaid.
The bill would have appropriated several million dollars to establish health care homes for Medicaid enrollees at federally qualified community health centers as provided in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act....
The Senate version of the bill has fared better. It cleared two key hurdles last month but now awaits a hearing before the Ways and Means Committee, chaired by Sen. Jill Tokuda. With deadlines fast approaching for money bills to pass in time to cross over to the other chamber this month, it’s do-or-die time for Senate Bill 908.
read ... Absentee Voter Industry
Hawaii's Ewa Field clears historic registry hurdle
SAS: The National Park Service has given the green light for a historic, but largely overlooked, military air field on Oahu to become a protected National American Battlefield.
The Keeper of the National Register issued a formal determination in February that Ewa Field, also known as Ewa Mooring Mast Field, is eligible for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places. The Navy, which owns the roughly 1,000-square-yard parcel of land, submitted the request for eligibility consideration in September.
Ewa Field has changed little since the Dec. 7, 1941, attack by the Imperial Japanese naval air forces, which heavily strafed the air field. Some of the concrete still bears bullet marks.
The Park Service’s notice of determination of eligibility, however, concluded that the Navy had been too conservative with its “narrow focus” on still-existing battlefield features, such as the 1941 runways, a warm-up platform and the foundation of a hangar.
“Considering only those resources evidencing direct associations (strafing marks, destruction of ground aircraft, defensive positions) with the battle, rather than the broader extent of the historic 1941 installation overlooks the equally justifiable significance of outlying support areas where the ‘battlefield action’ may have involved people fleeing from aerial bombs and bullet fire and taking shelter wherever possible,” the Park Service notification stated.
“The chaos and confusion of an unprovoked attack seems to call for an expanded definition of the involved ‘battlefield.’ We believe that the Ewa Mooring Mast Field is only one eligible component of a potential larger battlefield district whose boundaries and contributing resources have yet to be fully defined.”
read ... Hurdle
Lawsuit alleges public housing residents beaten by security guards
KHON: ...The attorney who filed the suit says five residents of Kalihi Valley Homes were beaten by security guards on five separate occasions.
The attacks reportedly occurred in September and October 2013, and May and August 2014.
“These men took it upon themselves to taunt them, call them out, ask them to fight and when the boys didn’t react to these taunts and requests to fight, the security guards took it upon themselves to initiate this violent act,” said attorney Joseph Rosenbaum....
PDF: Complaint Against Hawaii Public Housing Authority
read ... Beaten
Air Safety: Weather cameras work, but Hawaii won’t get them
PBN: The FAA, which has installed weather cameras only in Alaska, issued a press release in February lauding the program, saying the 221-camera system improved safety and efficiency by providing pilots with near-real-time, visual weather information. The program has helped pilots make better safety decisions and saved fuel by not forcing them to take off and return due to bad weather.
The program began in 1999 and the final camera was installed in September 2014. Camera images are updated every 10 minutes and are shown to the public through the FAA's aviation camera website, www.avcams.faa.gov.
In 2012, the FAA noted that the installation of the cameras has contributed to a 53 percent decrease in the weather-related aviation accident rate in Alaska, dropping from 0.28 accidents per 100,000 operations before 2008 to 0.13 accidents per 100,000 operations in 2011....
In an August 2013 letter to the FAA, the National Transportation Safety Board urged the installation of an aviation weather camera program in the other 49 states, particularly in Hawaii. The letter cited several aircraft accidents in the Islands since 1997 — nine of them involving helicopters and four involving single-engine airplanes, killing 48 and injuring four.
read ... Air Safety
Million Dollar Retaliation: Kauai County Cases Very Profitable for Honolulu Law Firms
KGI: Defending the County of Kauai in the two cases amounted to $564,830.79 in legal fees and were costs on top of a combined $425,000 in settlements paid to Moises and Pasion.
Moises, who accepted a $125,000 settlement from the County of Kauai, filed an age discrimination lawsuit in 2013 against former Department of Personnel Services Director Malcolm Fernandez, claiming he was told that he should not get a higher salary because of his age. He was later assigned to a principal project manager position with a reduction in pay, and then downgraded to a waterworks project manager.
Pasion, who accepted a $300,000 settlement, filed a whistleblower complaint that same year, claiming the County Council and Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr. retaliated against him and his department after he reported potentially unlawful conduct to the council and law enforcement officials about a 2012 audit on county fuel costs.
Legal costs, including travel and time incurred for depositions, and attorney’s fees in Pasion’s case alone totaled $550,573.49 to have the Honolulu-based law firm of Kobayashi, Sugita and Goda defend the County of Kauai.
Though the amount of hours worked on the case was not immediately available, the law firm was authorized to charge the county a minimum hourly rate of $60 an hour for the work of associates and other professional services, and a maximum rate of $275 an hour.
read ... Retaliation is Expensive
Anti-GMOs Put Gasmask on Tourism Message
MN: See a pineapple as a symbol of welcome and the lovely hula girl, only this time, recognize that the gorgeous girl's face is now covered by a black gas mask. What? Yes, a gas mask. How does it make you feel? How do you think it makes our visitors feel? What message does it send about Maui? Is that our reality? Obviously not!
Unfortunately, this is not an imaginary scenario. People who oppose genetically modified organisms and pesticide use are putting their agenda over the aloha spirit and publishing such postcards. The back of the postcard glosses over the ballot initiative and the lawsuit that resulted and tries to engage people to take action on an unsubstantiated cause of alarm.
The "free" postcards are being left out on tables and counters in establishments (hotel properties, restaurants, retail stores, coffee shops, etc.) across Maui for visitors to see and take, often without the establishment's knowledge of their distribution.
While clearly wanting to leverage off of the visitor industry's substantial investment and efforts, they are doing so with complete disregard for the tremendous work done to promote Hawaii since the early 1970s as a special place of peace, beauty and people who share their love of the islands with our guests. They are OK with trashing the allure of Hawaii to spread their message, regardless of the impact.
read ... Anti-GMO Hysteria Continuing
Hawaii Environmental Court Opens July 1
MN: ...Second Circuit Judge Joseph Cardoza and District Court Judge Adrianne Heely will hear Maui County's environmental cases when the new statewide environmental court program comes on line beginning July 1.
Hawaii Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Mark Recktenwald designated the judges to preside over cases in Maui County.
Cardoza will hear cases involving and including pollution, littering and protection of caves. Heely will preside over cases arising from hunting, fishing and boating issues.
Environmental court judges across the state will hear both civil and criminal cases.
Advocates for the new court program say it aims to focus the court's attention on environmental matters because these cases will be heard in separate calendars from the court's other criminal and civil cases. The program encourages judges to develop an expertise in this type of law, proponents said.
The program became a reality July 7 when Act 218 was signed into law by then-Gov. Neil Abercrombie.
This is only the second statewide environmental court in the United States, the state said. The other is in Vermont.
read ... Environmental Court
Mainland Homosexual Moves to Hawaii, Focuses on Sex Ed in Schools
SA: Mikulanec, 38, an Iowa native who moved to Hawaii in 1999 for graduate studies in archaeology....
He's worked for Brian Schatz (when Schatz was in the state House and again when he was lieutenant governor), Donovan Dela Cruz (while on the Hono-lulu City Council) and Blake Oshiro (while state House majority leader). Later Mikulanec was with the nonprofit Good Beginnings Alliance, pushing for expanded access to preschool. Now he's settling into a new job as a business analyst and government relations specialist for Hawaii Medical Service Association.
Mikulanec also is a longtime leader of Equality Hawaii and the Honolulu chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League....
"I think the next round of focus will be on these secondary issues, the Pono Choices and sex-ed issues, some of the religious exclusions and so forth will still be points of contention."
read ... About Your Rulers
Development Debates: Hoopili, Laie, and Paradise
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