STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1035

                                 Honolulu, Hawaii
                                                   , 1999

                                 RE: H.B. No. 351
                                     H.D. 2




Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say
Speaker, House of Representatives
Twentieth State Legislature
Regular Session of 1999
State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs, to which
was referred H.B. No. 351, H.D. 1, entitled: 

     "A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PRIVACY OF HEALTH CARE
     INFORMATION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this bill is to protect individual privacy
rights through comprehensive regulation of the use, handling, and
release of personal medical information by health care providers
and others.

     Testimony in support of this bill was received from the
Departments of Health, Human Services, and Commerce and Consumer
Affairs, the Office of Information Practices, the Hawaii Medical
Association, the Hawaii Medical Service Association, Queen's
Health Management, Hawaii Health Information Corporation, the
Hawaii Coalition for Health, Kaiser Permanente, State Farm
Insurance Companies, Common Cause Hawaii, and the Schering-Plough
Corporation.

     Testimony in opposition to this bill was received from the
American Council of Life Insurance, and several concerned
individuals.

     Your Committee finds that the provisions of this bill as
amended set reasonable parameters for limited disclosure, use,
and handling of personal medical information.  Your Committee's
main intent in passing this bill is to protect medical care
recipients from unwanted or unwarranted disclosures of personal
medical information.

 
                                 STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1035
                                 Page 2

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Deleting proposed Section -11(b)(3)(A), regarding
          information subject to the attorney-client privilege
          and information that is attorney work product;

     (2)  Adding language clarifying that disclosures of
          protected health information made pursuant to proposed
          Sections -35 and -36 are confidential and shall not be
          further disclosed;

     (3)  Requiring notice to be given to the Regulated
          Industries Complaints Office or any other agency that
          has regulatory oversight over a person, rather than
          just to the Insurance Commissioner when applicable;

     (4)  Deleting proposed Sections -57, -39(g), and 622-52(g),
          Hawaii Revised Statutes;

     (5)  Deleting the effective date; and

     (6)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for
          purposes of clarity and style.
 
     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your
Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to
this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and
purpose of H.B. No. 351, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and
recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto
as H.B. No. 351, H.D. 2.

                                   Respectfully submitted on
                                   behalf of the members of the
                                   Committee on Judiciary &
                                   Hawaiian Affairs,



                                   ______________________________
                                   PAUL T. OSHIRO, Chair