STAND. COM. REP. NO. 489

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 803

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committees on Judiciary and Labor and Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 803 entitled:

 

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

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to require the workers' compensation examination pursuant to section 386-80, Hawaii Revised Statutes, to be conducted by an impartial physician in the appropriate specialty area.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, ILWU Local 142, Work Injury Medical Association of Hawaii, and five individuals.  Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from the City and County of Honolulu Department of Human Resources; Hawaiian Electric Company, Inc.; and Property Casualty Insurers.

 

     Testimony was received expressing a concern that currently, an examination may be done by a physician that does not have expertise in the area of a worker's injury.  Your Committees believe that the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations should implement the program and that the program should require that the examination be done by a physician with special expertise for the injury being examined.  Your Committees note that the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations testified that this program has never been implemented due to a lack of funding.  Upon questioning, the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations estimated that $25,000 would be sufficient for it to begin the implementation of impartial examinations pursuant to section 386‑80, Hawaii Revised Statutes.

 

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Inserting a blank appropriation;

 

     (2)  Inserting an effective date of January 7, 2059, to encourage further discussion; and

 

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

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Judiciary and Labor and Health that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 803, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 803, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Judiciary and Labor and Health,

 

____________________________

JOSH GREEN, Chair

 

________________________________

GILBERT S.C. KEITH-AGARAN, Chair