STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2478

Honolulu, Hawaii

,

RE: S.B. No. 2227

S.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2006

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Health and Media, Arts, Science, and Technology, to which was referred S.B. No. 2227 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HEALTH INSURANCE,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to establish telehealth services as reimbursable services.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Health with comments, the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, the Office of the Insurance Commissioner, Hawaii Primary Care Association, Hawaii Medical Service Association, Hawaii Primary Care Association, and Hawaii Pacific Health.

Your Committees find that telehealth services are necessary to circumvent the geographic barriers that prevent ready access to health care for all residents of Hawaii. Expanding the use of technology and allowing reimbursement for telehealth services will improve the level of health care that is provided and be cost-efficient for patients and health care providers.

Your Committees have amended this measure by adopting the recommendations of the Department of Health by broadening the scope of reimbursable telehealth services to include health care provider-patient relationships, as opposed to just physician-patient relationships.

Your Committees further amended this measure by adopting the recommendations from Hawaii Pacific Health to ensure that telehealth services can be performed in an emergency room/ trauma care situation by allowing the establishment of a health care provider-patient relationship through a telehealth mechanism when one does not already exist.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Health and Media, Arts, Science, and Technology that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2227, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2227, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Housing.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Health and Media, Arts, Science, and Technology,

____________________________

CAROL FUKUNAGA, Chair

____________________________

ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair