Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Judiciary and Consumer Protection & Commerce, to which was referred S.B. No. 608 entitled:

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to aid law enforcement investigations of motor vehicle collisions by requiring physicians, surgeons, hospitals, clinics, and other healthcare providers to supply the police pertinent information arising out of motor vehicle collisions resulting in serious injury or death.

The Department of the Prosecuting Attorney of the City and County of Honolulu, Honolulu Police Department, Healthcare Association of Hawaii, and Queen's Medical Center testified in support of this bill.

Your Committees find that the police have a duty to investigate serious motor vehicle accidents to determine if any criminal conduct is involved. However, healthcare providers have been reluctant to release information relating to motor vehicle accidents in light of medical information privacy requirements of the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and the absence of state law specifically requiring release of this information. This measure would amend section 453-14, Hawaii Revised Statutes, which requires healthcare providers to report information regarding serious injuries caused by violence or sustained under suspicious or unusual circumstances, to specifically require the same reports for motor vehicle collisions resulting in serious injury or death.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Judiciary and Consumer Protection & Commerce that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 608, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 608, H.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.