Hawaii Health Systems Corporation

HHSC is the “Safety Net” for Neighbor Island acute care and the “Safety Net” for long-term care in the state of Hawaii. This means that HHSC facilities provide services to all regardless of whether an individual has health insurance or the ability to pay for the health care service they receive. The system operates 847 licensed beds in facilities located on three different islands. In Fiscal Year 2018, HHSC facilities provided: 13,016 acute care admissions and 70,398 acute patient days; 575 long-term care admissions and 50,353 long-term care patient days; delivered 1,872 babies births; and handled 75,456 emergency room visits (excluding inpatient admissions).

HHSC has approximately 2,500 employees. Over 89 percent of the HHSC employees are represented by 1 of 2 unions and are divided into 7 collective bargaining units. The two collective bargaining representatives are United Public Workers and the Hawaii Government Employees Association. Because HHSC is a public agency, its employees receive the same benefit rights and privileges of employees in other state agencies. There are close to 1000-plus physicians affiliated with HHSC facilities.

State Funding

Despite the high volume of care that is provided at HHSC facilities, HHSC continues to depend on appropriations from the Legislature for the provision of services and some capital improvement projects. The most recent general fund support amounted to approximately 21% percent of the $542M HHSC fiscal year 2019 operating budget.

Board of Directors

As prescribed by 323F-3, Hawaii Revised Statutes (“HRS”), the HHSC Corporate Board of Directors consists of 18 members, including the state Director of Health (ex-officio, voting status), the at-large member appointed by the Governor, the four regional chief executive officers (ex-officio), two members from each of 5 geographic regions (one of whom is appointed by the respective Regional System Board and the other by the Governor), and one additional member appointed by the Maui Regional board.

Pursuant to section 323F-3.5 each HHSC regional system is also governed by regional board of directors. The role of the regional system boards is to, among other duties, assume custodial care of the financial assets, real property, improvements, and other physical assets within its region.