Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2004

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 3041, S.D. 1, entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to allow parents or guardians to admit individuals under the age of eighteen to nonemergency treatment facilities without the consent or countersignature of the individual.

Testimony in support of the measure was submitted by the Department of Health and Hawaii Psychiatric Medical Association. The Office of the Public Defender and Hawaii Medical Service Association submitted comments on the measure.

Your Committee finds that parents and legal guardians caring for older juvenile children with serious mental health illnesses are faced with tremendous challenges in making health care decisions for those children. Your Committee recognizes that situations exist that require those parents or legal guardians to intervene on behalf of a seriously ill child without obtaining the consent of the child. Your Committee also recognizes the need for a periodic independent review by a neutral fact finder to ensure that the child's input into decisions concerning admission to hospitals is considered.

Your Committee has amended this measure by deleting the definition for "medically necessary treatment"; specified that the definition of "medical necessity" is as defined in section 423E-1.4, Hawaii Revised Statutes; and making a technical, nonsubstantive change to correct a typographical error.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 3041, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 3041, S.D. 2.