STAND. COM. REP. NO. 182-00

                                 Honolulu, Hawaii
                                                   , 2000

                                 RE: H.B. No. 2488
                                     H.D. 1




Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say
Speaker, House of Representatives
Twentieth State Legislature
Regular Session of 2000
State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Health, to which was referred H.B. No.
2488 entitled: 

     "A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO RETURN OF PRESCRIPTION
     DRUGS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this bill is to reduce the cost of health
care without compromising public health by permitting long-term
care facilities or supervised living groups to return unused
prescription drugs for redistribution.

     The Departments of Health (DOH), Human Services (DHS), and
Commerce and Consumer Affairs (DCCA), the Hawaii State Primary
Care Association, the Hawaii Long Term Care Association, and the
Hawaii Pharmacists Association (Pharmacists Association)
testified in support of this measure.  The Department of Public
Safety (DPS) submitted comments.

     DHS, through the Medicaid Fee-for-Service Program (Medicaid
Program), provides funding for more than eighty percent of all
medical services for Hawaii residents in long-term care
facilities.  Payments for pharmaceutical agents in the Medicaid
Program have been increasing more than fifteen percent per year.
In the fourth quarter of 1999, DHS spent more than $1,200,000 for
drugs used in long-term care facilities.


 
 
 
 
                                 STAND. COM. REP. NO. 182-00
                                 Page 2

 
     DHS has been informed by long-term care facilities that
drugs are being significantly wasted due to the inability of the
pharmacies to take back and redistribute them.  Presently,
prescription drugs that have been dispensed and bear the
patient's name cannot be put to use if the patient dies or no
longer needs the medication.  This measure will ensure the
integrity of returned drugs by allowing the return and
redistribution of drugs in well-defined situations.

     Your Committee finds that prior to the public hearing, DCCA,
the Board of Pharmacy, DHS, DOH, DPS, and the Pharmacists
Association had convened, and is now requesting amendments to the
bill.  Your Committee agrees with the suggested recommendations
and has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Clarifying that the returned prescription drug must be
          in its dispensed, unopened, tamper-evident single user
          unit;

     (2)  Replacing the term "long-term care facilities" with
          "institutional facilities";

     (3)  Deleting the requirement that the prescription drug
          must be in its original container, in appropriate
          quantity for use by a single user, and has not been
          dispensed and repackaged from a larger container;

     (4)  Requiring that the prescription drug must not be a
          controlled substance under the Uniform Controlled
          Substances Act; and

     (5)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for
          purposes of clarity and style.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your
Committee on Health that is attached to this report, your
Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No.
2488, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second
Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2488, H.D. 1, and
be referred to the Committee on Consumer Protection and Commerce.

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



                                   ______________________________
                                   ALEXANDER C. SANTIAGO, Chair