Written by a parent, not a doctor. Nothing here is medical advice.

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Hawaii program

Power-account help for medical equipment

Your electric company can record life-support equipment needs and explain its medical-account arrangements.

What it is

Your electric company can record life-support equipment needs and explain its medical-account arrangements.

If your child relies on powered equipment, the electric company needs to understand what a loss of power would mean. Hawaiian Electric offers a life-support registry and a separate special medical needs rate. The registry does not promise uninterrupted power or an automatic shutoff hold.

Eligibility rules
  • Hawaiian Electric’s programs serve its Oahu, Maui County and Hawaii Island accounts. Kauai is served by KIUC, which has separate assistance and medical-registration arrangements; your social worker can help check those terms rather than assume the Hawaiian Electric program applies.
  • The life-support form needs a licensed physician’s signature describing the equipment.
What you get
  • Medical equipment needs recorded on the Hawaiian Electric account.
  • Disconnection warning and billing help through the registry.
  • A separate discount of up to $20 monthly when a place is available.
What the help covers
  • The special medical needs rate discounts the first 500 kilowatt-hours each month by four cents per kilowatt-hour.
  • Hawaiian Electric’s medical discount and life-support registry are separate. Registration does not guarantee continuous power or forgive bills. Your utility and regulator confirm any medical shutoff hold, its length, renewal and payment terms. KIUC has its own arrangements on Kauai. The care team can help plan backup power for essential equipment.
If you decide to apply
  1. Ask your electric company and clinician which medical-registration form applies to your account.
  2. If you choose to register, ask about certification, warnings and payment arrangements; Hawaiian Electric’s discount has a separate waiting list.

Hawaiian Electric life-support registry and special medical needs rate. · Official page ↗

What happens next
  • Hawaiian Electric reviews the submitted form and the separate rate request.
  • The discount is limited to 2,000 customers and has a waiting list. Registration takes one or two billing cycles to show on the account.
Good to know

The discount is waitlisted. Registry enrollment is not a guarantee that power cannot be interrupted.

Other details
  • A medical flag and money toward a past-due bill solve different problems. H-HEAP and the Hawaii Relief Program have separate financial-assistance rules.
Official sources
Ask your social worker

“Would registering our child’s equipment change how the power company handles the account? What protection does it actually give, and could you help with the doctor’s form?”

Why I’m asking: I want to understand what happens if power is interrupted or a shutoff notice arrives.

More background and detailed requirements
Additional program information and published rules

Who does what

The three parts, side by side. The agency decides; nobody on this page does.

You

Get the doctor’s signature and send the form before there is a problem.

Your social worker

The oncology team signs the life support form.

The care team

The doctor certifies the equipment the child depends on.

Who decides
Hawaiian Electric.
Ask the care team
“Can you sign the power company’s life support form? My child is home on equipment and I want the account flagged before any shutoff notice.”

How to apply

First step: Ask the oncology team to sign the life support form and send it to Hawaiian Electric.

  1. Register on the life support list as soon as the child comes home on equipment.
  2. Join the discount waitlist at the same time.

Official application / program page ↗

Where it starts: Apply online for both. Ask the oncology team to sign the life support form.

What to gather

  • The equipment list
  • the account number
  • the doctor’s signature

How long: Not published.

What a yes looks like

A note on the account and a call before any disconnection.

What a no looks like, and the next move

Ask what the register requires and whether the crisis energy programme can pay the arrears instead.

Watch out

  • The register is not a guaranteed shutoff hold: no protected number of days is published.
  • The discount is waitlisted, so do not count on it this month.
  • Kauai and co-operative or municipal supplies are outside this.

The numbers and the rules

The arcane layer, kept on purpose. Checked September 11, 2026.

What it is worth

Four cents off each of the first 500 units of electricity, up to $20 a month, plus a doctor-signed register that brings warning before a disconnection.

  • $0.04 — Special medical needs discount per unit of electricity
  • $500/month — Units covered by the discount each month
  • $20/month — Maximum monthly discount

Legal protection: The life support register brings case-by-case billing help and advance notice when disconnection is at risk

What it costs the family: Nothing; a doctor’s signature is needed for the register.

The eligibility facts, as published

Territory
Oahu, Maui County and Hawaii Island (Hawaiian Electric)
Discount
currently waitlisted
Register
a licensed physician’s signature
Protected days
NOT FOUND; no statewide medical-certificate rule with days, renewals or utility coverage was verified

The trap: The register is not a shutoff moratorium. No statewide rule setting protected days, renewals or which utilities are bound could be verified, so nobody should be told a fixed number of protected days. The discount itself is waitlisted, so treat the register as the item that works today.

Where I read this

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