Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Human Services and Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 1199 entitled:

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to allow all licensed health care providers to share medical information with other licensed health care providers of children under the Child Protective Services System.

Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the Department of Human Services and the Legal Aid Society of Hawaii.

Your Committees find that the sharing of information between licensed health care providers who provide services to children in child welfare cases is in the best interests of the child and will help to ensure that these children receive appropriate medical care. The sharing of medical information is necessary for children, especially if they move from one family to another. The ability of health care providers to freely share this information with other health care providers will allow children to have more consistent care.

Your Committees have adopted the amendment suggested by the Department of Human Services to verify the identity of the health care provider, and to share the information with the assigned child welfare services worker for inclusion into the child's care record.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Human Services and Health that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1199, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1199, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs.