STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1392

                                   Honolulu, Hawaii
                                                     , 1999

                                   RE:  H.B. No. 328
                                        H.D. 1
                                        S.D. 2




Honorable Norman Mizuguchi
President of the Senate
Twentieth State Legislature
Regular Session of 1999
State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection, to which
was referred H.B. No. 328, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, entitled: 

     "A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO SUBSTANCE ABUSE,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to expand the group of
physicians qualified to provide substance abuse services as part
of a treatment plan for alcohol or drug dependence. 

     Chapter 431, Hawaii Revised Statutes (HRS), requires health
plan hospital and medical benefits to include treatment services
for mental illness, alcohol dependence, and drug dependence.
Substance abuse services must be provided by certified substance
abuse staff which currently includes professionals and
paraprofessionals with current full certification as substance
abuse counselors or program administrators under chapter 321,
HRS, and physicians holding a current American Society of
Addiction Medicine certificate.  

     This measure would expand the definition of "certified
substance abuse staff" to include physicians who are board
certified in psychiatry and who have additional qualifications in
addiction psychiatry from the American Board of Psychiatry and
Neurology.     

     Your Committee has amended this measure by replacing its
contents with the contents of a similar measure, S.B. No. 134,

 
a                                                     HB328 SD2  
                                   STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1392
                                   Page 2


S.D. 1, H.D. 1.  As amended, this measure provides that the term
"certified substance abuse staff" includes physicians who are
"board certified in addiction psychiatry", rather than "board
certified in psychiatry with added qualifications in addiction
psychiatry conferred by the American Board of Psychiatry and
Neurology". 

     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 H.B. No. 328, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and
recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto
as H.B. No. 328, H.D. 1, S.D. 2.

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



                                   ______________________________
                                   BRIAN KANNO, Co-Chair



                                   ______________________________
                                   BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Co-Chair

 
a                                                     HB328 SD2