Hawaiʻi Healthcare Task Force
Clinician-led Hawaiʻi 501(c)(4) working on payment reform, network adequacy, antitrust scrutiny and Neighbor Island access, with every claim sourced.
Latest articles
- Hawaiʻi Island Has Enough Mammography Machines. What It Does Not Have Is a Way to Reach Them. — Hawaiʻi Island has more certified mammography facilities per resident than Oʻahu. It has 28 times fewer per square mile. Five facilities, three towns, 4,028 square miles. The shortage is reach.
- Invisible Twice: The Behavioral Health Network Hawaiʻi Never Measured — The State's own quality review excluded seriously mentally ill patients from its network calculations. We measured what was never counted: the beds, the clinicians, and the arithmetic underneath Hawaiʻi's homelessness c…
- One Health Hawaiʻi and the Medical Loss Ratio Question — One Health Hawaiʻi should be reviewed by economic substance, not label, because HMSA’s MLR treatment may show whether insurer-provider payments remain independent or stay inside one enterprise.
- Trust Is Not Evidence | One Health Hawaiʻi, HMSA, HPH, and the Burden of Proof — Trust is not evidence. One Health Hawaiʻi’s backers should prove, with independent evidence, that consolidation will help patients instead of raising costs.
- Hawaii’s Health Insurers Began Differently. Are They Ending Up in the Same Place? — Different Stories, Same Direction | Hawaii Health Insurer Governance { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "NewsArticle", "headline": "Different Stories, Same Direction", "alternativeHeadline":
- Meet Your New Healthcare Provider — When insurance policies push Hawaiʻi’s doctors out, patients are left with an algorithm. Primary care is not a substitute input.
- Primary Care Is Not a Substitutable Input — Hawaiʻi's largest insurers, and now an HMSA partner, are treating primary care as a substitutable input that AI can replace. The HHTF lays out the record and says the relationship is not for sale
- Policy Brief: Payer Administrative Responsibility in Prior Authorization — Attempts to limit prior authorization quantity and scope have faced enormous push back. This brief puts forth a different path - shift administrative burden to the companies who create it.
- Medical Debt Is Not the Disease; It Is a Symptom — Hawaiʻi's medical debt relief bill helps 50,000 families. But debt is the symptom, not the disease. The largest study of this model found it doesn't improve health or finances. Treat both.
- Insurance Is Not Access: Hawaiʻi Needs to Stop Counting Healthcare It Cannot Deliver — You have insurance. Your doctor refers you to a specialist. The specialist is not on your island. The appointment is on Oʻahu. The airfare is yours. The missed work is yours.
- Spotlight: A Neighbor Island Family Physician on the Cost of Saying Yes — 45-minute source interview with a Hawaiʻi Island family physician, edited into a 2–3 minute clip on workforce shortfalls and access constraints.
- Short Clip: Why "Insurance" Is Not the Same as "Access" — A 2-minute clip drawn from a longer briefing: insurance coverage figures overstate real-world access in Hawaiʻi.
Reports
- HHIP GPCI Primary-Care Undervaluation Analysis — Quantitative analysis of how the Medicare Geographic Practice Cost Index undervalues Hawaiʻi primary care relative to actual practice costs.
- HHIP Three-Pillars Deck — The HHIP architecture: data utility, federated modules, and clinically-integrated network governance. Strategic deck.
- HHIP Integrated Long-Form Brief — Comprehensive policy and technical brief on HHIP as a statewide health data utility for Hawaiʻi.
- HHIP Executive Breakdown for the Department of Health — Executive summary of HHIP positioned for the Hawaiʻi Department of Health's decision context.
- HMSA vs. Hawaiʻi PCPA: Reimbursement and Conduct Brief — Comparative brief on HMSA reimbursement practices vs. the Hawaiʻi Primary Care Practitioners Association position.
- Same-Day E/M Denials: HMSA vs. NCCI Standards — Policy brief documenting HMSA same-day E/M denial practices against National Correct Coding Initiative standards.
- HMSA Same-Day E/M Denials — Coalition Inquiry Letter — Coalition letter to HMSA requesting documentation of same-day E/M denial methodology and policy basis.
- Prior Authorization Is Not a Clinical Tool — Prior authorization functions as a cost-containment lever, not a clinical safety mechanism. The evidence base from Hawaiʻi providers.
- After Payment Transformation: The Fee-for-Service and Capitation Crossroads — Hawaiʻi providers face a 60-day mandatory transition from payment transformation to fee-for-service. Both reimbursement models are severely underfunded in Hawaiʻi.
- The Directory Is Lying to You — Hawaiʻi payer directories contain inaccurate, outdated, and ghost provider listings. Patients cannot rely on the published network. Evidence and policy recommendations.
Upcoming and recent events
- Primary Care Spending Target — Provider Working Session — Saturday 12 September 2026, 4:00–4:40 PM HST, Room 314, JABSOM. How much of Hawaiʻi's health care dollar must reach primary care — and how the law makes it real.
- Access, Capacity, and Patient Safety — a statewide conversation on strengthening healthcare for all — Friday 18 September 2026, 9:30–11:00 AM HST, Asia Room, Hawaiʻi Imin International Conference Center, Honolulu. A ninety-minute session on what Hawaiʻi's healthcare capacity actually is, island by island, and what it means for patient safety.