Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Health and Human Services, to which was referred S.B. No. 1420 entitled:

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to prohibit the Department of Human Services from restricting payment for a recipient's access to psychotropic medication.

The Mental Health Association in Hawaii, the Hawaii Disability Rights Center, United Self-Help, and one individual submitted testimony in support of this measure. The Department of Human Services submitted testimony in opposition.

Your Committees find that access to the range of new and effective medications is crucial to mental health consumers' successful treatment and recovery. The Hawaii Disability Rights Center testified that the pharmacological approach to treating mental illness is far different from that used to treat physical ailments. Given the intricacies of individual human brain chemistry, it requires pinpoint precision to achieve a fine balance so that the delicate desired outcome of mental stability can be achieved. Many factors influence how patients respond to specific medications, such as age, race, ethnicity, gender, and health status. As one proponent testified, it is not the same as prescribing a standard antibiotic for the treatment of a common infection. Therefore, many states exempt mental health medications from preferred drug lists.

Upon further consideration, your Committees have amended this measure by requiring the Department of Human Services to recognize individuals who have not received a decision on their application to be presumptively eligible for psychotropic medication coverage until an eligibility decision is made, and exempting licensed medical care providers from preauthorization for prescription psychotropic medication.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Health and Human Services that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1420, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1420, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.