How A&B Wins Big From Environmental Litigation
Contracts: UPW 17% Raise, HSTA 15%, HGEA 8%
Petition Lists 7 Gut and Replace Bills, 11 Frankenstein Bills
Let Them Ask for Their Funding
Ira Einhorn, Earth Day's Dirty Secret
Crichton: Environmentalism is a religion
Which kills more: ideology or religion?
Star-Advertiser: 'Health Reform Driving Doctors to Leave'
SA: ...operational changes that are coming with health care reform appears to be driving more of the existing doctors to leave their practices.
This presents a crisis for Hawaii that demands action.... Some of the scary projections, including the estimate that puts the shortage at 747 doctors this year and almost 1,500 by 2020, were presented at Saturday's 2013 Hawaii Health Workforce Summit in Waikiki.
In fact, the worry extends across the country as more of "Obamacare," formally titled the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or ACA for short, is implemented in January.
Doctors already are frustrated at low reimbursement rates for Medicare patients, and many are refusing new patients — or even dropping the ones they already have — just as baby boomers are moving rapidly toward retirement.
What's accelerating the flight from practice now is concern that, under the ACA rules, doctors who haven't converted to electronic medical and prescription records will face penalties on top of that....
The transition to a different model of health care delivery is going to be a bumpy road, and a fair number of the medical establishment inevitably will veer off. (Yup. These idiots still want Obamacare--even if there are no doctors.)
read ... Something We Warned You About
Doctor Shortage: Experts blame the affordable care act
KITV: The state is facing a shortage of doctors.
Hawaii’s residents are aging quickly which means the doctor deficit is increasing at a time when a need for health care is also growing.
Experts blame the affordable care act.
They say there’s a lot of new paperwork, penalties and requirements.
“A lot of doctors are thinking rather than learn something all new, I’m just going to quit or I’m not going to take insurance,” said Kelley Withy, John A. Burns School of Medicine.
She says legislators are working on increasing funding for Native Hawaiian health....
KITV: Another Version of Same Story With no Mention of Obamacare
read ... We Told You So
MD: State should end Medicaid managed-care model
SA: There is nothing in the governor's Health Transformation Initiative that addresses the reasons doctors are refusing Medicaid patients. The managed-care policies that obstruct and deter care and associated administrative hassles for doctors are being left in place. Doctors may complain about low fees, but that is not the reason they have been fleeing Medicaid. Medicaid fees relative to commercial rates have not changed significantly in the past 20-30 years, but physician acceptance of Medicaid patients declined only after Medicaid was broken into competing private plans.
The state actually ran Medicaid much more cost-effectively than the private plans do now, but a consolidated Medicaid program could use a single third-party administrator to run the program in lieu of re-creating the administrative structures that were in place before conversion to Medicaid managed care.
Hawaii could markedly reduce Medicaid administrative costs while increasing physician participation and access to care simply by terminating our Medicaid managed-care program when the contracts expire at the end of this year, and go back to fee-for-service Medicaid. Then we could add care coordination programs funded with the State Innovation Model planning grant, including patient-centered medical homes and community care teams, and see if they help improve the cost-effectiveness of care.
read... What a Doctor Says
Legislators revisit school land Development plan
SA: The Public Land Development Corp. may soon be history, but state lawmakers are moving toward an agreement on legislation that would encourage redevelopment projects on underused public school land.
House and Senate negotiators on Friday exchanged drafts of bills that would allow a handful of mixed-use development projects on public school land that could generate revenue to modernize the state's aging schools....
Lawmakers have narrowed the governor's proposal and have avoided the kind of regulatory exemptions that the public objected to in the PLDC. Abercrombie has said he would sign a bill that would repeal the PLDC, but wants lawmakers to consider other public-private partnerships.
Both the House and Senate now agree that the 21st-century schools plan should be overseen by the state Department of Education, not Lt. Gov. Shan Tsutsui's office, as senators had initially proposed.
The House would authorize the state school board to select up to five public school properties for redevelopment, with no time limit on when the projects would be completed. The Senate would allow up to two projects that would have to be completed within five years....
Some of the same environmental activists who opposed the PLDC are urging lawmakers to kill the 21st-century schools plan. The Waikiki Neighborhood Board, meanwhile, has gone on record opposing any redevelopment at Jefferson Elementary School, which sits on valuable property in Waikiki....
Some Waikiki residents are speaking out against a legislative effort to allow the state to redevelop underused school lands, fearing that Jefferson Elementary is being targeted. Liz Larson, left, and Mela Kealoha-Lindsey, right, talked to Karl and Annabell Christ and their 7-year-old daughter, Kyleigh, during a public market at the Waikiki school on Saturday....
read ... Developers Delight
HCDA in Charge, Solar Scammers Eager to Kill Off Akoko Plant
SA: The Hawaii Community Development Authority, which is responsible for redeveloping the shuttered Navy base, said about 250 acres on three parcels, including the one that's home to the akoko, were offered to it after the Fish and Wildlife Service and state Department of Land and Natural Resources turned the land down.
The akoko occupies 150 to 160 acres at what used to be the Navy's northern trap and skeet range.
In 2011, the HCDA, a state agency, proposed an ambitious solar energy farm for that parcel, as well as on 80 acres of the adjoining southern trap and skeet range. No akoko has been identified on the southern parcel, officials said.
That later became a plan for 5 to 10 megawatts of photovoltaics on the northern site and 5 megawatts on the southern parcel, said Anthony Ching, HCDA's executive director.
Ching said prospective solar companies could work around the akoko. But in addition to a Fish and Wildlife Service recommendation that 99 acres of the northern site be set aside for an akoko preserve, the service said HCDA would have to be responsible for the ongoing preservation of the plant, Ching said.
Developing a conservation management plan, putting in fencing and a firebreak road, doing clearing work, and hiring people to maintain the site and the akoko could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in short- and long-term costs, Ching said.
"Let's call it a million-dollar commitment," he said.
Ching said Fish and Wildlife is "trying to establish an unfunded mandate (for HCDA) for a situation for which they themselves chose not to take responsibility."
He noted that an earlier proposal had HCDA setting aside 50 acres for akoko on the northern site. The Fish and Wildlife recommendation now is for 99 acres.
Both the northern and southern trap and skeet ranges were designated as "critical habitat" for the akoko, officials said....
Fish and Wildlife has been in contact from the beginning with HCDA and the solar companies that wanted to operate on the land.
"We're at a point where we need to protect a large chunk of this land for the species, because it only exists there," Nadig said. "We were very upfront from the beginning — if they can't do that, then maybe they shouldn't look to doing it, and look elsewhere."
read ... Rare native plant stalls land plans for Kalaeloa
HEI Boss Pulls Down $5.3M
SA: The chief executives of Hawaii's top publicly traded companies saw the value of their pay packages climb to an average of $2.20 million in 2012, topped by the $5.82 million in salary and other compensation received by Hawaii Electric Industries' President and CEO Constance Lau.
The average compensation for the state's top 11 chief executives at publicly traded companies rose 28 percent from $1.73 million in 2011, according to a Star-Advertiser analysis of Securities and Exchange Commission filings.
Lau's compensation package was up from $5.3 million in 2011. Following Lau was Bank of Hawaii Corp. Chief Executive Peter Ho, who jumped two places on the list with an increase in his compensation to $3.97 million from $2.06 million in 2011. Hawaiian Holdings Inc. President and CEO Mark Dunkerley moved up to third place from fifth based on an increase in his pay package to $2.5 million from $1.61 million.
read ... Electric Rates
DoTax Blames Slow Processing for Shortchanging Rail Revenues
Shapiro: » The city was shorted $33 million on rail taxes in the first half of the year because the state ran four months late in processing tax returns. You know we're in trouble when our state leaders can't even handle the only thing the government usually excels at — raking in taxes.
» Hawaii taxpayers are rushing to file state taxes by Monday's deadline after last week's federal crunch. That's the 808 way: We're fined if we file a day late, but the state can drag its feet as long as it wants in processing the returns.
Related: DoTax Cooking Books to Influence Legislature? HART Calls for Audit
read ... Pols' problem-solving tactic a game of duck, duck, goose
Now That Rail is Approved, H1 Gets 4th Lane in Kalihi
KITV: When the project is complete, there will be a fourth lane in both directions from Kalihi to Downtown.
It's an extension of last summer's pilot project that added an extra lane through Makiki.
Like that area, lanes will be reduced to 10 feet and the speed limit lowered to 45 mph.
Read ... Now That Rail is Approved
Mitsunaga War on Kobayashi Squelches UHH Pharmacy School
Borreca: Rep. Isaac Choy, chairman of the state House Higher Education Committee, is saying "no more money for buildings, until UH fixes what it has."
Choy is on solid ground with his stand against new buildings, because a tour through UH-Manoa is more like a walk through a parking lot of overturned, rusting, unemptied Dumpsters, than a leafy college campus. The place is a mess.
UH is running a maintenance backlog of $461 million, with future needs of $512 million, according to one estimate.
Choy said what bothers him is that the UH and the Abercrombie administration switched $33 million in funds dedicated to fixing safety code and health and safety repairs, to the Hilo College of Pharmacy.
Reality: Mitsunaga Names Names, Slams UH for Favoritism Towards Kobayashi
read ... Mitsunaga vs Kobayashi
Evaluation team penalizes pharmacy school for lack of dedicated facility
HTH: “Of the 30 standards that comprise ACPE Standards 2007, the evaluation team found that the College was in compliance with all but one,” wrote evaluation consultant Max D. Ray in a preliminary summary of findings following the visit. “With respect to Standard 27 (Physical Facilities), the team found the College to be non-compliant.
“The College’s current facilities cannot be considered in any way acceptable under the requirements of Standard 27. … It is the evaluation team’s opinion that, unless immediate attention is given to the need for improvement in the College of Pharmacy’s physical facilities, the University will need to take a hard look at whether it can maintain a viable pharmacy program.”....
The University is currently working with the Legislature to procure the $38 million in funding it needs for construction, equipment and furnishings for a permanent building. The state Senate has fully funded the project in its version of the state budget, but the state House of Representatives dropped a line item for the college from its version of the budget about halfway through the current session.
In an April 10 letter to members of the House finance committee, Big Isle delegates conveyed their “strong support for full funding.”....
The current Legislative session will come to a close on May 2.
Related: From Hawaii to Virginia, are College Accreditors Overstepping their Authority?
read ... Lobbying Tactic?
Ing's Bill banning access to employees' social media fails
SA: The Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii testified throughout the session that it had concerns regarding the bill because while there have been high-profile social media disclosure cases around the country, it does not believe there is a prevalent problem in Hawaii.
The Maui and Honolulu police departments opposed drafts of the bill that did not exempt law enforcement from the prohibition on requesting social media information because they said preventing police from examining applicants' social media accounts would compromise their extensive background check process.
The House Labor and Public Employment Committee amended the bill to exempt law enforcement, but the House Judiciary Committee removed the exemption before passing the bill on to the Senate — where it died without being heard by the Judiciary and Labor Committee.
read ... Failure
Luddites Motivated by Ideology, Profit
SA: Hooser, recently elected to the Kauai County Council, counts himself among those dubious about GMOs, but added that his concern isn't entirely based on safety.
"The GMO industry has certainly become a focal point for globalization, for corporate greed, pesticides for a lot of bad things going on in the world," he said....
some businesses have perceived a market demand for labeling and are trying to fill it. One is Whole Foods, which has pledged to require GMO labeling on all stocked products in its store by 2018.
In the meantime, shoppers can seek out products labeled as GMO-free, a certification provided by the nonprofit Non-GMO Project, said Claire Sullivan, who coordinates purchasing and public affairs for the Hawaii operations.
"Clearly labeled products enable shoppers who want to avoid foods made with GMOs to do so," she wrote in an email reply to the Star-Advertiser.
read ... Fielding GMOs
Enviros: Celebrate Earth Day by Tithing $11M
SA: Currently, only 10 percent of our watershed forests are protected, a figure that does not bode well for the future. But there is good news. Over the past two decades, more than 75 public and private landowners, agencies and partners have been working together statewide to protect our most important watershed forests.
These 11 watershed partnerships, along with five island invasive species crews, are among the most progressive of their kind in the country. Working on slim budgets, they have accomplished remarkable results, building fences and removing destructive weeds and feral animals from thousands of acres of state and private forestlands.
To succeed long term, however, they need secure, dedicated public funding.
This year, the state Legislature has an opportunity to deliver that funding by supporting the governor's "Rain Follows the Forest" initiative, which over the next decade would double the acres of protected watershed forest. His plan calls for $11 million a year to fence core forest areas, remove invasive species and plant native trees. If we are serious about our future water security, it is a plan we should all support.
read ... Gimme the Money
QUICK HITS: