STAND. COM. REP. NO.  42-08

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2008

 

RE:   H.B. No. 2001

      H.D. 1

 

 

 

 

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2008

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committees on Health and Human Services & Housing, to which was referred H.B. No. 2001 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO TELEPHARMACY,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this bill is to ensure access to the prescription drugs people in certain rural areas of the state need by requiring the Board of Pharmacy to allow the federally qualified health center Hoola Lahui Hawaii, on the island of Kauai, to participate in a telepharmacy program.

 

     The Hawaii Primary Care Association, Hoola Lahui Hawaii, Hana Health, and Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center supported this bill.  Kaiser Permanente and Times Super Market Pharmacies supported the intent of this measure.  The Board of Pharmacy supported this bill with amendments.

 

     Your Committees find that use of remote dispensing pharmacies supported by modern telecommunication technologies offers an innovative and efficient method of providing residents of rural areas of the state with the prescription medications they need.  Ho'ola Lahui Hawaii is currently set up to provide this service on the island of Kauai and we can learn much by observing this operation to note what benefits could be gained through its use elsewhere in the state.  Subsequent committee hearings may wish to consider that Hana, Maui would also be a place that could realize many benefits of such a system due to its geographically isolated nature.

 

     Your Committees have amended this bill by, among other things:

 

(1)  Authorizing remote pharmacies in any county with less than 100,000 residents;

 

(2)  Providing that a remote dispensing pharmacy will be under the direct supervision of a registered pharmacist;

 

(3)  Ensuring a secure physical set-up connected remotely to a responsible pharmacy that enables consumers to consult privately with a pharmacist;

 

(4)  Stipulating that a pharmacist be in control of the facility's operation and approve prescriptions before they are dispensed;

 

(5)  Prohibiting the dispensing of controlled substances from remote dispensing pharmacies;

 

(6)  Providing that records are kept of prescriptions filled at a remote dispensing pharmacy;

 

(7)  Exempting physicians from the stipulations of this bill;

 

(8)  Requiring the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs to submit an annual report to the Legislature on the use of remote dispensing pharmacies and their financial impact on near-by pharmacies; and

 

(9)  Inserting a sunset date of January 1, 2013.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Health and Human Services & Housing that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2001, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2001, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Consumer Protection & Commerce.


 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Health and Human Services & Housing,

 

 

____________________________

MAILE SHIMABUKURO, Chair

 

____________________________

JOSHUA B. GREEN, M.D., Chair