Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2006

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Health, to which was referred H.R. No. 230 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is requesting the judiciary to establish an appropriate fee for court-ordered forensic evaluations and to provide copies of the examination reports to the Department of Health.

Testimonies in support of this house resolution were submitted by the Hawaii Government Employees Association and the Hawaii Disability Rights Center. The Hawaii State Department of Health opposed this resolution. The Judiciary, State of Hawaii takes no position to this resolution.

Your Committee finds that the increase in fees paid to forensic examiners will incur cost to the State. This fee is a flat fee which does not take into account the number of hours devoted to conducting the evaluation. While the Adult Mental Health Division of the Department of Health currently certifies those psychiatrists or psychologists who are appointed by the court to conduct forensic evaluations, the Department of Health has no statutory authority to monitor the quality or consistency of the reports. This lack of a formal mechanism for the Department of Health to receive or review the examination reports further hinders the identification of the causes of delays in the evaluation process. Further, while there is no statutory mandate for the court to provide copies of the forensic reports to the Deparment of Health, neither is ther a statutory prohibiion.

Your committee has amended this house resolution as follows:

1. Making technical changes to this house resolution; and

2. By focusing on the intent of this house resolution further, and deleting unqualified data.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health that is attached to this report, your Committee concurs with the intent and purpose of H.R. No. 230, as amended herein, and recommends that it be referred to the Committee on Judiciary in the form attached hereto as H.R.230, H.D. 1.