STAND. COM. REP. NO. 593

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2005

RE: H.B. No. 1058

H.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Health, to which was referred H.B. No. 1058 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT MAKING AN APPROPRIATION FOR PHARMACY SERVICES AND SUPPLIES,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to appropriate funds to the Department of Health (DOH) for:

(1) Federally qualified health centers; and

(2) The Medicine Bank,

to provide pharmacy services and supplies to low-income patients.

The Hawaii Primary Care Association testified in support of this bill.

Your Committee finds that 31,200 of the 75,000 residents served in 2003 by Hawaii's community health centers were uninsured or without prescription drug coverage, and that Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC) in Hawaii have the programs and capacity to procure and distribute prescription medications to this population.

To accomplish this, FQHC programs would require the following assistance from the State:

(1) $1,000,000 to subsidize the cost of purchasing pharmaceutical products via the FQHC federal drug pricing or 340B program;

(2) $200,000 to subsidize services to procure free prescription drugs via pharmaceutical manufacturer's FQHC patient assistance programs; and

(3) $200,000 to support the FQHC Medicine Bank in its collection and distribution of free pharmaceutical samples and supplies, and to provide pharmacy consultation.

Your Committee has amended this bill by:

(1) Appropriating $1 to each of these programs to promote further discussion; and

(2) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for clarity, consistency, and style.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1058, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1058, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Finance.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Health,

 

____________________________

DENNIS A. ARAKAKI, Chair