Matt Elliott approved by BOR as next UH Mānoa athletics director
HMSA’s ‘Take-it-or-leave-it’ Contracts ‘Fundamentally Unfair’
SA: … While we advocate for more equitable treatment of physicians in health system policies and sometimes engage in dialogue with insurers like HMSA, we do not have the authority — nor have we ever claimed the authority — to bind physicians to any contractual terms or financial arrangements.
This distinction is not merely technical. It goes to the heart of what is at stake in Nitta vs. HMSA. Dr. Frederick Nitta and the other plaintiffs challenge several provisions in HMSA’s PPA as procedurally and substantively unconscionable — most notably the physician’s right to practice medicine and mandatory arbitration terms.
HMSA’s legal defense relies in part on the argument that these contracts are not unconscionable because they are “negotiated” and because organizations like HMA allegedly “represent” physicians in the contracting process.
This argument mischaracterizes both the nature of the agreements and the role of HMA. In reality, these contracts are standardized form contracts and presented on a take-it-or-leave-it basis.
Physicians face immense economic and patient-care pressure to accept HMSA’s terms if they wish to remain accessible to the majority of insured patients in Hawaii. When reimbursement structures like capitation offer average payments of just $24 per patient — with no clear methodology disclosed — physicians are left with little room for meaningful engagement, let alone negotiation.
The Hawaii Supreme Court is being asked to assess whether the arbitration clause in the agreement is enforceable. While arbitration may be presented as a fair forum, its fairness must be evaluated in the context of how the contract was formed. If the agreement was not meaningfully negotiated and reflects unequal bargaining power, then the arbitration clause — no matter how neutral it appears — may still be fundamentally unfair….
RELATED: Hawaii justices examine doctors’ ability to challenge denied health insurance claims
Read … Column: HMA’s role misstated in HMSA case | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Honolulu City Council leadership changes proposed
SA: … A special meeting of the Honolulu City Council today may lead to the political shake-up of its leadership.
At the 2 p.m. meeting, the Council is scheduled to discuss only one item for action — Resolution 170, which seeks to reinstall Tommy Waters as the nine-member panel’s chair and presiding officer. It also would remove current Vice Chair Matt Weyer, who’s been in that second seat role for about six months’ time.
Waters has led as the Council’s chair since 2021.
The resolution, if adopted, would install Andria Tupola as vice chair, replacing Weyer. Esther Kia‘aina would be named new floor leader, replacing Radiant Cordero, who’s occupied the position since 2023, the legislation states.
Co-introduced on June 6 by Scott Nishimoto and Val Okimoto, Resolution 170 appeared two days after the Council voted to approve a $5.19 billion budget package for the city’s 2026 fiscal year, which begins July 1.
On June 4, the Council also voted 5-4 to narrowly pass a version of Bill 60 — related to the city’s planned 10-year, 115% sewer fee rate hike to ratepayers on Oahu — that was eventually advanced under a different version of the measure by Council member Tyler Dos Santos-Tam.
Read … Honolulu City Council leadership changes proposed | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
After Engineering the Woke Ouster of Isaac Choy, CNHA is back at HTA for ‘Mo Money
CB: … HTA’s vice president of finance and acting chief administrative officer, Isaac Choy, has been placed on unpaid leave. In a letter, HTA’s interim chief executive Caroline Anderson alleged Choy had made derogatory remarks toward Native Hawaiians and created a hostile work environment.
(TRANSLATION: He said bad, bad things about CNHA.)
Choy has filed a lawsuit alleging his removal was retaliation for his reporting procurement violations and other problems that he alleges are wasting millions of dollars….
In the past, HTA received about $80 million annually. That’s been cut to $63 million. Of that, Hawaiʻi Visitors and Convention Bureau gets about $38.6 million while CNHA gets $18.7 million under current annual contracts….
REALITY: Lawsuit: HTA bosses destroy Convention Center Roof in quest for retaliation
REALITY: Auditor: HTA has been promising 'Destination Management' since 2005
Read … With The HTA In Chaos, A New Hawaiʻi Tourism Leader Has Emerged - Honolulu Civil Beat
Union COVID Cash Bonanza Continues: $124.4 Million In Pandemic Hazard Pay For Prisons
CB: … Hawaiʻi corrections officers will receive hazard pay worth 25% of their wages, including thousands of hours of overtime they worked during the pandemic, under a series of arbitration decisions that will cost the state an estimated $124.4 million.
Arbitrator John Mukai also imposed interest charges of 10% per year on the back pay beginning May 16 to prod the state into paying promptly. United Public Workers union members who work for the state, including corrections officers, have waited years for the hazard pay called for in their union contracts.
Mukai’s rulings amount to one of the largest awards of hazard pay in connection with the pandemic, second only to the $450 million Gov. Josh Green’s administration agreed to pay to members of the Hawaiʻi Government Employees Association and others last year….
Read … State Must Fork Over $124.4 Million In Pandemic Hazard Pay For Prisons - Honolulu Civil Beat
Affordable Housing Fraud? ‘Still working on it’
HTH: … County Auditor Tyler Benner’s report — which noted the complexity of Chapter 11 rules and concluded it was extremely difficult to track and quantify affordable housing credits in circulation — contained the seven recommendations that Benner said would improve the situation at OHCD if they were implemented in good faith.
Benner said his office hasn’t yet conducted a follow-up audit, “as we typically wait at least two full budget cycles before returning, but we plan to do so in the upcoming fiscal year,” which begins in July.
“We provided the department with an expectation of our return sometime after February 2025,” Benner said and referred to a March 22, 2023, memo to former Housing Administrator Susan Kunz. “We look forward to the follow-up.”
Benner noted that audit recommendations appear on a remediation tracker on his department’s web page.
“A department can, but does not have to, submit information prior to a follow up audit if it believes it has resolved an audit recommendation,” he said. “In the case of OHCD, they did submit evidence of ongoing training to meet our recommendation No. 7.”
The remediation tracker lists that recommendation as “fully implemented.”
The remaining six recommendations are listed on the remediation tracker as “pending.”
They include: working with the County Council to clarify the county’s affordable housing requirements; establishing administrative rules to “help guide OHCD to effectively administer the county’s affordable housing policy”; updating and enforcing policies and procedures “to ensure consistency throughout the organization and with industry best practices”; increasing monitoring and policy oversight to “ensure OHCD’s internal control system operates effectively and efficiently”; and segregating incompatible duties to “ensure one individual does not oversee key steps of the affordable housing process.”
Mayor Kimo Alameda said after the June 4 convictions of Sulla, Zamber and Budhabhatti in a jury trial that OHCD “has taken concrete actions to strengthen internal controls, improve oversight, and ensure that public resources are managed responsibly and transparently.”
(TRANSLATION: Alameida is blowing smoke.)
Read … County housing office still working to implement auditor’s recommendations - Hawaii Tribune-Herald
Lawsuit Asks Court To Halt Haʻikū Stairs Demolition, Citing State Flip-Flop
CB: … SPHD had previously expressed a preference for preserving and restoring the structure in a 2019 letter to the city, according to the filing.
“SHPD’s preferred alternative would be to keep the Haʻikū Stairs and … and restore the damaged section of the stairs,” the letter read.
But on April 9, SHPD wrote to the city’s Department of Design and Construction that the demolition could proceed. The Friends of Haʻikū Stairs argue that SHPD’s April letter was deficient because it didn’t adequately explain why it abandoned its previous support for preservation.
“We just think that SHPD’s rapid shift from preservation to demolition without explaining or doing any of the steps necessary under state law was fundamentally wrong and voids the whole process,” Justin Scorza, vice president of the Friends of Haʻikū Stairs, said on Monday.
The group had first appealed the letter April 12 with the Hawaiʻi Historic Places Review Board, but the board lacked a quorum to rule on the legality of the letter, Scorza said.
DLNR spokesman Dan Dennison said Monday he would not comment on pending litigation.
City spokesman Ian Scheuring said the city was confident the Circuit Court does not have jurisdiction over the case and expected the lawsuit to be dismissed….
Read … Lawsuit Asks Court To Halt Haʻikū Stairs Demolition, Citing State Flip-Flop - Honolulu Civil Beat
BYU-Hawaii alum killed as Utah ‘No Kings’ protesters shoot at each other
SA: … At the No Kings protest in Salt Lake City on Saturday, two armed security members spotted a man dressed all in black move away from demonstrators and to a secluded area behind a wall, police said.
At that point, according to police, the man started handling an AR-15-style rifle that he removed from his backpack. The security members drew their guns and confronted the man, who began running toward the crowd, holding his weapon in “a firing position,” police said.
One of the security members fired three times, wounding the gunman and striking a bystander, who was killed, the Salt Lake City Police Department said.
Police took the man with the rifle, who was identified as Arturo Gamboa, 24, into custody and charged him with murder, Chief Brian Redd of the Salt Lake City Police Department said at a news conference Sunday.
(CLUE: Gamboa is a leftist who often open-carries guns at leftist rallies.)
The bystander, who was identified by police as Arthur Folasa Ah Loo, 39, of Utah, died at a hospital.
Ah Loo, 39, was born in Samoa and later moved to Hawaii, where he attended Brigham Young University–Hawaii, according to the Salt Lake Tribune. Originally majoring in political science, he ended up in fashion design, eventually gaining national recognition as a contestant on Season 17 of “Project Runway.” ….
Fox13: Murder suspect described as punk rocker who often open-carries gun at protests
IMG: Photos of AR15 Shooter
Go Fund Me: Fundraiser for Laura Ah Loo by Lindsey Olson : Help Laura, Vera, and Isaac After Afa's Passing
SA: Designer with ties to Hawaii killed at ‘No Kings’ protest | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
KSL: 'Innocent bystander' shot, killed by member of 'peacekeeping' group at Salt Lake rally | KSL.com
Read … BYU-Hawaii alum, ex-‘Project Runway’ designer killed at Utah protest | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
ICE agents arrest Russian woman at Marine Corps Base Hawaii
SA: … U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have arrested a Russian woman in the United States illegally at Marine Corps Base Hawaii in Kaneohe, officials said.
Anastasiia Vorobeva “entered the United States at the San Ysidro port of entry in San Diego, Calif., July 18, 2023,” read a caption beneath a post of a picture of Vorobeva posted on ICE’s social media platforms Sunday. She was arrested Thursday, according to the post.
How Vorobeva got on the base, what she was doing there, and what federal law she is accused of violating were not made public by ICE officials….
Read … ICE agents arrest Russian woman at Marine Corps Base Hawaii | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Hawaii DOH could seize unregulated THC products in 2026
KHON: … “If you’re selling a hemp derivative product that’s going to get you high, the Department of Health will have the ability to come in, fine you and seize your products if you’re doing that,” said Rep. Scot Matayoshi….
“In January of 2024, we had about 40, stores on Oahu selling illegal cannabinoid products. Right now, we’re up about 74. Now, I think it’s become a lot more obvious,” Rep. Matayoshi said.
Medical cannabis dispensaries said it is about time. Many have raised concerns about mislabeled or unregulated products that end up in headshops or convenience stores.
“The danger is that people have figured out this loophole where where they will just mislabel cannabis as hemp and then sell it in a regular retail setting,” said Kar Laulusa, CEO of Noa Botanicals. “So they think they’re consuming something that doesn’t have THC and they go home and consume it and then they go to work and they get drug tested and they test positive for THC. And they’re like, ‘How does that happen? You know, I didn’t take THC, I took CBD.’ Well, that’s the problem with mislabeled products.”…
Read … Hawaii DOH could seize unregulated THC products in 2026
Heated moments at Makaha meeting on transitional homes project
HNN: … Opponents and supporters of a tiny homes project for homeless young adults in Mākaha experienced some tension as they came together Monday.
It was the first time the project held a meeting at someone’s house.
Tootsie Rodrigues, 85, lives on Noholio Road in Mākaha. She hosted a community meeting because next door, the nonprofit Residential Youth Services and Empowerment (RYSE) wants to build transitional housing for homeless young adults ages 18 to 24.
She and others say they fear for their safety while supporters say homeless youth are neglected.
“There’s a lot of empty land to put these kids in, because if they come here, and they are not going to listen, I swear to God, they better not come on this property,” said Rodrigues….
KITV: Transitional home for homeless youth, runs into a roadblock in Makaha | Local | kitv.com
Read … Heated moments at Makaha meeting on transitional homes project
Fiber cut causes outage in Windward Oahu
KHON: … A fiber line was deliberately cut in a remote, wooded area of Windward Oahu on Monday, knocking out internet and phone service for customers in Kāne‘ohe and parts of Kailua, according to Hawaiian Telcom….
Crews responded to the outage early Monday morning and worked throughout the day to assess the damage and begin repairs. By late afternoon, the company reported ‘significant progress’ and said service for most residential and business customers had been restored by 6 p.m. Repairs for the remaining affected customers are expected to wrap up by 10 p.m.
Hawaiian Telcom confirmed that the fiber cut was an act of vandalism. A spokesperson said an investigation would follow once full service had been restored and customers’ needs were addressed.
This marked the second communications outage in Windward Oahu in recent weeks. A previous incident affected cellular service.
On Monday, Verizon also reported service issues tied to a third-party vendor’s fiber line and said its engineers had been working to resolve the issue….
Read … Fiber cut causes outage in Windward Oahu | KHON2
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