STAND. COM. REP. NO.  626-14

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2014

 

RE:   H.B. No. 1973

      H.D. 1

 

 

 

 

Honorable Joseph M. Souki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Finance, to which was referred H.B. No. 1973, H.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO WORKERS' COMPENSATION,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this measure is to:

 

     (1)  Impose a penalty on an employer who does not pay an employee temporary partial disability benefits within 14 calendar days after the end of the employee's customary work week;

 

     (2)  Clarify that an employee's eligibility for temporary total or partial disability benefits shall be determined by certification from the employee's attending physician every 30 days or by an examination of the employee's entire available medical records by another physician if the employee's attending physician is not available; and

 

     (3)  Allow contemporaneous certification of an employee's disability status to be waived and allow the retroactive certification of a disability under certain circumstances.  Retroactive certification may be requested only once and shall not be for a period exceeding 12 months before the date of the request.

 

     ILWU Local 142 and an individual testified in support of this measure.  The Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii; Hawaiian Electric Co., Inc.; Maui Electric Company, LTD.; Hawaii Electric Light Company, Inc.; Hawaii Insurers Council; Building Industry Association of Hawaii; Property Casualty Insurers Association of America; Maui Canyon Adventures Inc., dba Rappel Maui; and John Mullen & Co., Inc. testified in opposition to this measure.  The Department of Labor and Industrial Relations; Department of Human Resources Development; and Department of Human Resources, City and County of Honolulu provided comments on this measure.  

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Finance that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1973, H.D. 1, and recommends that it pass Third Reading.

 

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

 

 

 

 

____________________________

SYLVIA LUKE, Chair