STAND. COM. REP. NO. 958

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 1004

       S.D. 2

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2007

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Affordable Housing, to which was referred S.B. No. 1004, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PSYCHOLOGISTS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to ensure that individuals living in rural areas of the State have access to appropriate mental health care services by authorizing appropriately trained and supervised psychologists to prescribe psychotropic medications for the treatment of mental illness.

     Written comments in support of this measure were submitted by the American Psychological Association; the Hawai‘i Psychological Association; the Hawai‘i Primary Care Association; Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center; Moloka‘i Community Health Center; the Board Members of the West Hawaii Community Health Center; Hamakua Health Center; Na Pu‘uwai Native Hawaiian Health Care System; Community Clinic of Maui; Papa Ola Lokahi; Waikiki Health Center; Kokua Kalihi Valley; Ho‘ōla Lāhui Hawai‘i; West Hawaii Community Health Center, Inc.; Mental Health America of Hawaii; and thirty-one individuals.

     Written comments in opposition of this measure were submitted by the Board of Medical Examiners, the Hawaii Psychiatric Medical Association, the Hawai‘i Society of Addiction Medicine, the Hawaii Medical Association, the National Alliance of Mental Illness, and fifty-three individuals.

     Written comments were submitted by the Board of Psychologists.

     Your Committee finds that there is limited access to mental health care treatment services for those living in the rural areas of the State. 

     Your Committee further finds that the delivery of comprehensive, accessible, and affordable mental heath care may be enhanced by providing trained and supervised psychologists with limited prescriptive authority for the specific purpose of providing care in federally qualified health centers or other licensed heath clinics located in federally designated medically underserved areas.  This measure will address the urgent need for timely, appropriate, and cost-effective mental health and pharmacological services for qualified health centers that are most in need of psychologists with prescriptive authority.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by deleting the definitions of "collaborative relationship" and "medical psychologist" since the context in which these terms are used make their defining unnecessary.  Your Committee has also made technical, nonsubstantive changes for the purposes of style and consistency.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Affordable Housing that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1004, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1004, S.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Affordable Housing,

____________________________

BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair