STAND.
COM. REP. NO. 511-20
Honolulu, Hawaii
, 2020
RE: H.B. No. 2451
H.D. 2
Honorable Scott K. Saiki
Speaker, House of Representatives
Thirtieth State Legislature
Regular Session of 2020
State of Hawaii
Sir:
Your Committees on Consumer Protection & Commerce and Judiciary, to which was referred H.B. No. 2451, H.D. 1, entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HEALTH,"
beg leave to report as follows:
The
purpose of this measure is to
amend the Our Care, Our Choice Act by:
(1) Explicitly recognizing advanced practice registered nurses as attending providers and consulting providers capable of performing all necessary duties under the Our Care, Our Choice Act in accordance with their scope of practice and prescribing authority;
(2) Reducing the mandatory waiting period between oral requests made by a terminally ill individual from twenty to fifteen days; and
(3) Waiving the waiting period between oral requests for a qualified patient who an attending provider has attested will die within fifteen days of making the initial oral request.
Your Committees find
that access to care is a significant problem statewide, particularly in rural
areas. Due in part to Hawaii's geography,
the State's supply of physicians is at its lowest since 2015, creating
additional barriers to access for qualified terminally ill individuals. Your Committees further find that Hawaii
grants advanced practice registered nurses the authority to independently carry
out all medical acts consistent with their education and training, including
prescribing all forms of medication.
However, at this time, advanced practice registered nurses do not have
the authority to support terminally ill patients who want the option of medical
aid in dying by acting as an attending or consulting provider under the State's
Our Care, Our Choice Act. This measure
explicitly recognizes advanced practice registered nurses as attending
providers and consulting providers under the Our Care, Our Choice Act, which will
provide greater access for mentally capable, qualified terminally ill
individuals to the full range of end-of-life care options under the Act.
Your
Committees have amended this measure by:
(1) Deleting language that would have
allowed a waiver of the waiting period between oral requests for those qualified
patients not expected to survive the mandatory fifteen-day waiting period; and
(2) Making technical,
nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity, consistency, and style.
As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Consumer Protection & Commerce and Judiciary that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2451, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommend that it be referred to your Committee on Finance, in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2451, H.D. 2.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Consumer Protection & Commerce and Judiciary,
____________________________ CHRIS LEE, Chair |
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____________________________ ROY M. TAKUMI, Chair |
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