STAND. COM. REP. NO. 520

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 102

       S.D. 2

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2013

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection, to which was referred S.B. No. 102, S.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE ELDERLY,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to require financial institutions to report instances of suspected financial abuse of an elder directly to the appropriate county police department instead of the Department of Human Services.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Human Services, Hawaii Bankers Association, Hawaii Credit Union League, and one individual.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Maui Police Department.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from the John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawaii.

 

     Your Committee finds that elder financial exploitation is a growing problem in Hawaii.  Although this measure requires financial institutions to report instances of suspected financial abuse of an elder to the appropriate county police department, your Committee further finds that it will be more efficient and effective to require a dual system of reporting to the Department of Human Services and the appropriate county police department.

 

     Your Committee additionally finds that the Department of Human Services and interested financial institutions have been engaged in ongoing discussions on this measure.  Consensus language has been reached by the interested parties, which would require the mandatory reporting of suspected financial abuse of elders by the financial institutions to the Department of Human Services and the appropriate county police departments.  Amendments to this measure to incorporate this consensus language are therefore necessary.

 

     Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Requiring suspected financial abuse to be reported to the Department of Human Services in addition to the appropriate county police department;

 

     (2)  Requiring the Department of Human Services to proceed in accordance with chapter 346, Hawaii Revised Statutes, upon notification by a financial institution of suspected financial abuse and a determination of the Department's jurisdiction over the elder;

 

     (3)  Requiring the county police department to proceed with a criminal investigation in a timely manner upon notification by a financial institution of suspected financial abuse; and

 

     (4)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 102, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 102, S.D. 2.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection,

 

 

 

____________________________

ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair