STAND. COM. REP. NO.490

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2003

RE: S.B. No. 1071

S.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Labor, to which was referred S.B. No. 1071 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO INDEPENDENT MEDICAL EXAMINATIONS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to require employer-requested medical examinations for workers' compensation cases to be performed by a physician selected by mutual agreement of the parties, or if no agreement, by a physician appointed by the director of the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.

Testimony in support of the intent of this measure was submitted by the Consumer Lawyers of Hawaii.

Testimony in opposition to this measure was submitted by the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations (Department), Society of Human Resources Management, the Hawaii Medical Association, and the Hawaii Insurers Council.

Your Committee finds that the qualifications, fairness, and impartiality of examiners conducting examinations under section 386-79, Hawaii Revised Statutes, are of paramount importance in the workers' compensation system.

Your Committee also finds that currently, many employers and carriers routinely schedule medical examinations with the same physicians repeatedly which creates the impression that the examiner is partial to the employer or carrier because of the volume of examinations performed and the amount of income that is generated from these examinations. Therefore, your Committee believes that a clear policy against the appearance of partiality is needed.

Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by requiring all examinations conducted during the course of an accepted workers' compensation claim to be performed by a physician selected by mutual agreement of the parties, or if no agreement, by a physician appointed by the director of the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. The amendment specifies that examinations covered by this requirement include those where the employer is dissatisfied with the progress of the case and where major elective surgery is contemplated, but not those requested by an employer pursuant to an investigation of a claim before compensability is accepted or ordered by the Department, the appeals board, or appellate court.

Your Committee also made a technical, nonsubstantive amendment for the purpose of clarity.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Labor that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1071, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1071, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection and Housing.

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

____________________________

BRIAN KANNO, Chair