Senate Standing Committee on Health and Human Services

Good afternoon. Mahalo for joining today's Health and Human Services GM cap hearing on Monday, 03/16/2026 at 1PM. There's somebody's thing here. We are convened in Room 225. This meeting is being streamed live on YouTube.

In the unlikely event that we must abruptly end this hearing due to technical difficulties, the committee will reconvene to discuss any outstanding business later at 01:10PM on Wednesday, 03/18/2026 in Room 2 To 5, and a public notice will be posted on the legislator's website. To facilitate this here in a timely manner, we will be enforcing a one minute limit on testimony, but not of those who are

nominees. I will be reading a list of individuals who submitted written testimony for each measure. We apologize if the closed captioning does not accurately transcribe the names. If you're interested in reviewing the written testimony, please go to the legislator's website. You'll find a link on the status page for the measure.

We appreciate your understanding and remind you that the committee does have your testimony, that we review them. So I encourage you to use your time to either add additional comments or you can stand on your written testimony. Right after this, I will not be doing any more housekeeping announcement. We will go directly to the 01:10pm bill calendar. So also present with me is my vice chair, Senator McKelvey.

So first up, GM 541, submitting for consideration and confirmation to the Health Planning Council, West Oahu Subarea, Gubernatorial Nominee Christine Cabingabang-Tingcang. Come on up, Christine. Let us know what it is, why it is you want to be in the commission.

Okay. Hello there, Miss. Alright. So--

Then Council.

Good afternoon, and thank you for having me, and the opportunity to sit in front of you today.

Could you put the mic closer to you? Thank you.

Okay. So, good afternoon. Thank you for having me. Thank you, Senators. So, forgive my nervousness, but I would love to be a part of this advisory group just because of what things are happening here in the healthcare system. There's so many things that are uncertainties, right, whether it be for our kupunas, our children, or even us as adults in the ever-changing healthcare systems, and we have no idea what the next steps are.

I'll be-- you know, with the experience that I have, it would be great to be a part of the advisory group to see and mold a better healthcare system and to be a part of this wonderful group with Dr. Lewin and Terry and the SHPDA Advisory. You know, their leadership has really started to pave the way with all these different programs coming on, like the AHEAD Program. With CMS changes, I mean, there's so many things that I would be able to kinda have a path forward to be able to support our community.

Okay. Thank you very much. Members, any questions for the nominee at this time? Okay. Also in support of Christine's nomination, we have Dr. Lewin. Are you prepared?

I am.

Okay. So, State Health Planning and Development Agency, in support.

Yes. Thank you. We stand on our written testimony, but we're really happy to support Christine, Chair and Vice Chair, and I guess no one's here yet. She has already interacted with us in so many positive ways. We've had interactions about the, you know, the insurance world, of the medical payment side of things.

And so she's been extremely helpful to us outside of this role in just keeping SHPDA informed of what's going on in the market and the environment. She's very, very knowledgeable about what's happening in her space, and she has respect of the community around her, so we think she's gonna be a wonderful representative.

Thank you very much. Anybody else wishing to testify on GM 541? Members, any questions? So Christine, unlike the old SHPDA, which is just concerned with certificates of needs, you are aware from Terry and Dr. Lewin that it's a brand new world now with SHPDA? They want to do far more things.

Exciting.

Are you ready for the challenge--

Absolutely.

--to help guide them?

Absolutely.

Okay. Okay. Thank you very much for being willing to volunteer. Okay. Next up, GM554. Consideration for council on mental health nominee, Danielle Bergen. Danielle, are you present? Danielle, is that you?

Okay.

That is me.

Okay. Please proceed. Let us know why you wanna be in the state council in mental health, Maui service area board.

Thank you. I have been involved in my community and mental health, work training and Please identify yourself. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm Danielle Bergen, and I have been nominated to be on the State Council on Mental Health. And, I was a former co chair or chair actually of the Maui area service board for the past eight years and turned off of there, where I work to do my best, for our community, our adults and our youth for their mental health and mental wellness.

I have been certified and trained to do several different kinds of mental wellness and suicide prevention trainings in my community and have been doing so since 2017. In my past work with Mental Health America of Hawaii, I was very much involved in the community and all the partnerships that are involved with it, like the Hoeia Kaika partnership, the Maui area service board, the children's community council. And I think that volunteering is also a big part of of this while I'm semi retired and actually working as a consultant and a mental health trainer for Youth Line Hawaii, which is new to Hawaii. That's the first call center in Hawaii for a peer to peer crisis helpline out of Portland, Oregon. And we're actually training our youth this week, our second class.

So I'm just really committed to, doing what I can for the community in light of everything that we've been through between COVID and especially hindsight where I live and senator McAlvey lives, with the wildfires. And, I just feel that that being a positive force and doing what I can to help can help break the stigma and, you know, really try to open up people to realize that asking for help is a sign of strength and not weakness.

Okay. Thank you very much. In support of Daniel Bergen's, nomination, we have Department of Health. Is anyone here for Department of Health? Okay. Now, members, any questions? Okay. I see Department of Health. Please proceed. Identify yourselves.

Good afternoon, senators San Buenaventura and senator McKelvey. Yes. I am standing here for the DOH, and we stand on our testimony. And we're really thankful that Danielle is stepping in.

Could you identify yourself?

Oh, this is Carolyn Wagon Hildebrand.

Okay. Thank you.

I'm the planner.

Thank you very much. Anybody else wishing to testify on g m 554? Members, any questions?

No. But a comment. I know Danielle's work personally. She's done amazing work for mental health in our community, especially as for the fire. So I'm just wanting to throw out the fact that I'm very happy and grateful that she's stepping up to join us in this. Thank you, Daniel.

Yes. And and I also am impressed with your resume, miss Bergen. And thank you so much for being willing to volunteer.

K. Thank you so much, senators. Appreciate it.

So we're gonna oh, by the way, for nominees, we will be doing the decision making at the very end of the of the GMs. So k. Next up, GM555, State Council on Mental Health, Margaret Jackson. Margaret Jackson, are you present?

Not present on Zoom, chair.

Not present on Zoom. Okay, next up. Okay, we are gonna defer this to the end of the calendar, and-- if she shows up. Otherwise, we'll defer to the next hearing. Next up, GM 559. State Health Coordinating Council, Peter Sybinsky. Peter Sybinsky, come on up.

You're next on the Price is Right.

Senator--

Please identify yourself.

I'm Peter Sybinsky. Senator Buenaventura and Senator McKelvey, really appreciate the opportunity to be with you folks today. I think, to answer your question very simply is, I just believe in the value of public service and have been committed to it throughout my life. And unless good people get involved in public service, we get a less than good product, and I'm sure you've seen examples of both.

I happen to be privileged to work for Governor Waihe'e and Jack Lewin in my role as a Deputy Director of Health and Director of Health, and I really feel that we did a great job improving the health of Hawaii. And it's a great opportunity to perhaps help out in an advisory capacity with Jack and with Governor Green to make health better in Hawaii and to take on this expanded role that SHPDA entails.

Okay. Thank you very much. Okay. On behalf of GM 559, we have Dr. Lewin, in support.

Chair San Buenaventura, Vice Chair McKelvey, I have to say that this guy and I have worked together so well for so many years, and it's a tremendous relationship, and so now I don't have to just call him up at home and ask him for what should we do about this, and what should we do about that issue?

We'll have him here on our highest advisory body. It's really important to have the perspective that Pete brings to this, but not only has he been a leader here in Hawaii, he led various other state entities and a national association, so he's really a public health leader with state and national experience, and we're just so grateful to have his advice at this time with the Rural Health Transformation, the AHEAD grant, and all the other responsibilities that this entails.

Okay. Also speaking on behalf of Dr. Lewin, we have Jennifer Diesman, HMSA, in support, and we have Marilyn Matsunaga, also in support. Anybody else wishing to testify on GM 559?

Speaking on behalf of Dr. Lewin or the nominee?

On GM 559.

Doctor Sybinsky.

Okay. Thank you so much. So--

We'll add this to comments from you.

So Dr. Sybinsky, again, like all the other nominees, super well-qualified. I see that you worked in Maryland, in Indianapolis, in D.C., in San Francisco, as well as here in Honolulu, and I like the fact that you are with Hawaii Health Information Corporation because that's one of the tasks that SHPDA is trying to get its handle on also, is our Hawaii Information Exchange. So thank you for being willing to volunteer in giving us your mana'o.

It'll be a pleasure.

And just a point of personal interest, something I forgot, I wanted to let you know, Senator, as chair of HHS, that he was the father, really, of the SHPDA program.

Okay.

Oh.

And given all the issues we have with the uninsured right now, we really wanna have all the expertise we can put together to think about how we can afford to cover people in these challenging times.

I remember him from the Tony Chaney days.

It's like everything's old is new again, isn't it?

Yeah.

Okay. Well, thank you. We need-- like I said, this is a brand new SHPDA, okay? So we need all the expertise that we can get. Thank you so much. Okay. GM 561. Moving on. Juvenile Justice State Advisory Council, Andrew Sabanal. Andrew Sabanal, are you present? Andrew?

Not present, Chair.

Okay. So, we will we'll defer this to the end of the calendar or to a time certain, when he is available. K. Next one would be GM679, board of directors of the Hawaii Health Systems Corporation, Kelsey Lou. Kelsey Lou, are you present? Come on up. Okay. Hey. Please identify yourself and let us know why it is you wanna help HHSC.

Of course. Good afternoon. My name is Kelsey Liu, and I have had the pleasure of working with AJ Jesse on the Oahu Region Board for the last in 2025. Initially, my influence and and what made me really wanna work with them is taking care of an elderly Mhmm. Parent at home, suffering from dementia and Alzheimer's.

And it was, like, a perfect calling, I felt like, when I was asked to join Oahu Region. And I it just felt very aligned. So when I was asked about the corporate board, it was a very easy yes because I think that health care is going to change. It's ever changing. We are gonna be faced with a scenario where you're gonna have a lot of elderly that that need help.

And, having good governance and oversight and see how can we make that happen is gonna become even more important and, critical as, as time in the next five years, even.

Okay. Thank you very much. Okay. On behalf of on behalf of GM, but excuse me, 679. I'm getting old. We have Sean Sanada in support. Come on up.

Good afternoon, chair, vice chair, Sean Sonata on behalf of the Wahoo Region. Like miss Muse mentioned earlier, she is currently a member of the Wahoo region board. She's been on the board since 2025, and she very rapidly demonstrated her aptitude for board governance. Her background in finance truly, demonstrated her understanding of of what our mission is and how she could apply her skill sets to, you know, the mission that we're trying to accomplish, which is helping the most vulnerable population, of course, elderly primarily. When we were aware as a board of the vacancy in the corporate board, and we felt that she'd be the perfect delegate, so to speak, representing what our mission is on the corporate level.

And, you know, for those reasons, on behalf of the board, I was given permission to say this, that we wholeheartedly the board wholeheartedly supports your nomination and would respectfully request a recommendation of confirmation.

K. Thank you very much, Sean.

Thank you.

K. Next up, we have Ed Chute in support. Come on up for HHSC.

Good afternoon, chair, vice chair, members of the committee. Edward Chute, president and CEO for HHSC. Besides the fact that she makes up for a lot of the shortcomings of the CEO of HHSC, we we gladly support her, and strongly support her, consideration to be a member of the HHSC corporate board. I think her background in finance speaks well for itself. You know, we have many significant financial challenges going forward into the future, particularly with the impacts of the federal, you know, HR one bill, whatever you wanna call that, that dastardly thing.

So I think her background will serve serve us well in that regard. And, you know, having worked with her on the Waco region board for the past year or so, she she asked a lot of good questions. And I think that's what we need as we move forward with our strategic planning for the future. So, we signed our testimony, strong support. Be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you very much. We also have Raul Magana in support. Anybody else wishing to testify on GM 679? Members, any questions? Okay. Oh, good. We have quorum. Okay. I don't have questions. Sean Sonata and I know I always task Oahu Region to become more self sufficient. So your finance background, we are, is a huge benefit to HHSC Oahu region. We need

your help on a few things on Maui too. So I'm glad you're here.

Yeah. Okay. Thank you very much. We're reminded of that behind

you very much for your time.

you, so Thank

Okay. Thank you so much. Okay. Next up, GM705, Center for Nursing Advisory Board, Terrilyn Wu. Terri, are you present?

Not present on Zoom, chair.

Okay. Not too bad. Yeah. It's a storm. Okay. We're gonna defer that to probably a time certain. GM735, Kao Yan, for board of certification of operating personnel and wastewater treatment plants. Kao Yan. Okay.

Flight changes,

he also will not

Okay. So we're gonna defer that. Yes. You did note that. Sorry. So for for GM735705561, and GM555. We are gonna defer those hearings to Wednesday, March 18.

Did you say 555?

That's what I got. I said GM555, Margaret Jackson.

Correct.

K. GM56. 561 Andrew Sabana Sabana. Correct. GGM705 Terry Luke, Terry Lynn Luke.

Correct.

And GM735, Paul Young. Correct. K. So for those g m's, we are gonna defer their hearings to Wednesday, March 18 at one p m. And at this time, we are ready for decision making. You ready? I am, but we gotta

just make sure I got all the

So next, we're gonna go GM541.

Alright. Nice and easy.

Christine Kabinkabang Tinka. I thought my name was hard to pronounce. Okay. Okay. Christine. So, chair's recommendation is to advise and consent. Any comments, questions, concerns? Seeing none, vice chair for the vote.

Okay. Five 41 recommendation is to advise and consent, noting the presence of you and me and Senator Kanuha with all others being excused. Any WRs and O's? Seeing none, recommendation has been adopted.

Thank you. K. For GM 554 Danielle Bergen, chair's recommendation is to also advise and consent.

Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait.

Mister Ali.

I don't have a 554 sheet here.

GM554?

I don't have a yeah. I'm missing that sheet.

K. What sheet do you have?

All I got is 541559679. And what's this one is which one? 5 no.

That one. 554. You got

Now I

it. Yep.

got 554. Okay.

Okay. So for Jim 554, chair's recommendation is the advice and con consent. Any comments, questions, concerns? Seeing none, vice chair for the vote.

Okay. Recommendation 554 is vice consent, noting the presence of the members indicated before any of the others. No. Seeing none, recommendation is adopted.

Thank you very much. For GM559, Peter Savinsky. Chair's recommendation is to advise and consent. Any comments, questions, concerns? Seeing none, vice chair for the vote.

Okay. Recommendations advised and consent. Noting the excused members earlier. Any of the others, no. Seeing none. Recommendations adopted.

So for GM561, Andrew Sabano. Okay. Well well No. I'm sorry. That one is deferred. For GM679, Kelsey Lou, chair's recommendation is to advise and consent. Any comments, questions, concerns? Seeing none, vice chair for the vote.

Okay. Recommendation on the GM is advising consent. No need to excuse members earlier. Anybody else or no? Seeing none, recommendation's adopted.

And with that, we are adjourned for our 01:00 calendar. K. We are adjourned. Let's take a short Calling the 01:10 calendar, Healthy and Human Services. Same housekeeping announcement. This meeting's being streamed live on YouTube. Present with me is senators McKelvey and Kanuha. Okay. First up, HB 816 relating to emergency response. First up, we have excuse me. Oh, thank you. Went too fast. Okay. We have doctor Lewin in support. Okay.

I guess he left. Next, we have Garrett Hall. Come on up. In support. That's for Department of Health.

Good afternoon, chair, senator senator San Buenaventura, the vice chair, and committee members. So the Department of Health, stands in support of this initiative. However, we have substantial amendments to this just to ensure that we comply with existing statute that's already in place. The way it was written, it would potentially allow any first responder to provide a medication which that doesn't go. So we we strongly support. We just ask that you adopt the amendments as placed into the recommendation.

Thank you very much.

And we have doctor Lewin also in support.

Thank you.

Stand on our chair, vice chair, and, senator Kanuha, we stand on our testimony in strong support of this measure.

Okay. We also have another department of health providing comments other than doctor Hall at and Aaron Hall. Next, we have Leland Leland Leland Leland Brady, Aloha Independent Living Hawaii in support. Mark Gordon in support. Anybody else wishing to testify on HB 816? Members, any questions?

A quick question, chair.

Okay. Go ahead.

Doctor Lewin, super fast.

Yeah.

I like the other bill better, Senate Bill 2505. If this committee were to go ahead and conform this measure to that measure, would you be supportive of that to address the issues raised?

That was mister Hall's testimony. Yep. Got it.

Just wanted to clarify. Yeah. Okay.

Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Next up, HB 1131, relating to intensive mobile team pilot program for houseless individuals suffering from serious brain disorders. First up, we have Doctor Lewin again, in support.

Thank you, Chair, Vice Chair, and Senator Kanuha. We, we think that it's obvious we, we really have a great need here, and we obviously we also wanna defer to Department of Health for the details of this. But this is such an important measure to help the safety of, of our citizens on the streets and for humanitarian purposes for the people involved. So, we think this is a, a really positive way to solve this problem in in part anyway, and we, we strongly support.

Thank you very much. Next, we have Leland Brady, Aloha Independent Living Hawaii, in support. Dr. Ignacio for Hawaii Medical Association, in support. Anybody else wishing to testify on HB 1131? Members, any questions? No. Okay. Seeing none, moving on. HB 1562 relaying to youth mental health. First up, we have Dr, Lewin, in support.

Thank you.

Chair, vice chair, honorable member. We we believe that we've seen this kind of, program in action. We think this could be a very helpful, innovative way to approach, youth mental health. And and when, you know, young folks have trouble expressing these kind of issues to other individuals, this is a way for them to be able to get these issues out and even then, get self referred to care and for treatment through this approach. We think it's really worth trying.

It's working in other states. We'd love to see it happen here. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you very much. Next, we have, Bonnie Kahakui, state procurement office providing comments. Chris Cofield, Hawaii Public Health Institute in support. Come on up.

Aloha, chair, vice chair, majority leader. I'm Chris Cofield from the Hawaii Public Health Institute. We're in support of this bill. The statistics make this clear. One in three students in grades six to 12 felt so sad or hopeless, as I'm sure you know, for two weeks in a row that, they could barely function, yet 25 less than 25 percent of them received appropriate care.

And over 26 percent of students in grades six to eight, seriously considered suicide, yet only about twenty percent of those, received appropriate or trauma informed care. We think this bill could be a tremendous help, to those young people in need. Thank you so much.

Thank you very much. K. For 1562, Oh, we have Michael Golojuch Junior in support LGBTQ Commission. Michael Golojuch, are you present on Zoom?

Not present, chair.

Okay. Next, we have Shelley Niles, Catholic Charities Hawaii in support. Hawaii Substance Abuse Coalition, Alan Johnson providing comments. Hawaii Community Foundation, Justina Acevedo Cross in support. Leland Brady of Aloha Independent Living Hawaii in support. Doctor Elizabeth Ann Ignacio, Hawaii Medical Association in support. Judith Clark in support. Judith, oh, I see you. Please proceed. I see you.

Aloha chair, vice chair, members of the committee. As a community advocate and the former executive director of Hawaii Youth Services Network, I support this bill which establishes a digital mental health platform

for youth. Identify yourself on the record.

I'm sorry. I'm Judith Clark. I am a community advocate and the former executive director of Hawaii Youth Services Network, and I am testifying in strong support of this bill. In multiple years, young people who attend the Hawaii Children and Youth Summit at the state capitol have advocated for increased access to and increased funding for mental health services. They point out that many of the young people who need this help, especially in underserved rural areas, need supports to, access services. Thank you for this opportunity to testify.

Okay. Thank you very much. Okay. Anybody else wishing to testify on HB 1562? Members, any questions? Okay. Moving on. HB 1705, relating to child custody. We have no testimony on this. Anybody wishing to testify on HB 1705? Okay. Seeing none, moving on. HB 2343 relating to veterans. Okay. First up, we have Department of Defense in support, Major Logan.

Next, we have oh, come, come on in for Department of Defense. You don't look like Major Logan, but that's okay.

Chair, Vice Chair, Brigadier General retired Dilma Tiyoshi for Major General Logan. The department stands out its testimony in support. This is a very important bill for our department in order to move the state veterans home forward and to ensure its proper operation, without any kind of delay. If there's any questions, we'll be here to answer them. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Next, we have Hawaii Office of Veterans Services, John Alamundin, in support. Sean Sonata, Oahu Region HHSC, providing comments.

Good afternoon, Chair and Vice Chair. On behalf of the Oahu Region, and we're just comments, not because we don't support the facility. We absolutely support the facility. I know there were some issues regarding the control over the facility. For us, it, it frankly doesn't make a world of difference whether it's us or Maui because we, we support Maui having an entity do to do it.

But if Oahu is necessary in order for the facility to move forward, we're there. You know? It's a purely supportive position. We expect no remuneration or whatnot. If we end up holding it in perpetuity, we seriously wanna make sure the facility is, is established and with no benefit to Oahu. As long as it's it's there, it still supports our mission to support the vulnerable populations.

Thank you very much. Next, we have Hawaii Military Affairs Council in support. Michael Golojuch, Sr. in support. Thomas Driscoll in support.

Yes, chair. Thomas Driscoll, colonel, US Army Medical Service Corps, retired. Testifying as an individual. This is really an important bill for us. Strong support, and we very much like to see this bill proceed through the entire process and give us this opportunity to work together. And that means together, all of us here today. It's a great team. Thank you for the opportunity to testify. I'm here if I have questions I could answer for you.

Okay. Thank you very much. And thank you, Tommy, for always being here for this bill, despite your retirement. Anybody else? No. He, he championed it last year.

No. No. No. He's been there from the all our veterans for years.

So, thank you very much. So, anybody else wishing to testify on HB 2343? Members, any questions? Are we ready for the switch of—no?

No. No. I've been.

...Senator?

No. This is a DM thing. Not literally with the bills. This is before you quit DM. I just noted something I wanted to ask you real quick.

Do you want a recess?

Yeah. Can we do for one second?

Okay. May we have a short recess? One ten HHS calendar for decision making. For HB 816 chair's recommendation is to insert the contents of SB 2505 SD one into HB 816 make it upon approval, and any technical non substantive amendments needed for clarity and consistency. Any comments, questions, concerns? Seeing none, vice chair for the vote.

Okay. Recommendation on 816 HD one is SD one, noting the presence of you and I and senator Kanuha with all others being excused in, WRs and noes. Seeing none, recommendation has been adopted.

So, for HB 1131, Chair's recommendation is we need to pass this with amendments. We're gonna need to, on page four, line five, update the report, change the appropriation dates to reflect the 2026 legislative session, and keep the defective date. Any comments, questions, concerns? Seeing none, Vice Chair for the vote. Pass with amendments.

[Roll Call]

Okay. For HB 1562, we're gonna accept the Procurement Office's proposed amendment, keep the blank appropriation, and keep the defective date. So pass with amendments. Any comments, questions, concerns? Seeing none. Vice Chair for the vote.

Okay. Recommendation 1562, HD 1 is an SD 1. Of the, noting excused members. Anybody else? No. Seeing none. Recommendation adopted.

Okay. HB 1705. We note that there is a defective date. I like the contents of it even though there's no testimony. But because of defective date, we're going to just keep it moving. So Chair's recommendation is to pass it as is with a defective date. Any comments? It already has a defective date.

Okay. So we're not re-defecting it to the Senate Draft. Okay. Straight to the Governor's desk. Right?

Yeah. Okay. We'll go ahead and put in a new defective date of January 30, 2050. I know. Okay. Pass with amendments on HB 1705. Yes. No. We cannot pass it with the defective date because that has happened before. And we ended up going to the Governor's Office with a defective bill. So it can happen that.

We gotta, we gotta create a SD 1 with our own after date.

Any other comments, questions, concerns? Pass with amendments, a new defective date.

Got it. Passing of amendments to create a Senate Draft 1 on 1705, HD 1. With noting the excused Members previously, any WRs or noes? Seeing none. Recommendation is adopted, Chair.

Okay. So, for HB 2343, we're gonna pass this with amendments. We are gonna change the defective date to be upon approval. Any comments, questions, concerns? Pass with amendments. Okay. Vice Chair for the vote.

[Roll Call]

And with that, we are adjourned. Thank you, folks.