HB679

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.B. NO.	679
TWENTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE, 2007
STATE OF HAWAII

A BILL FOR AN ACT

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that the recent loss in federal funding from the National Institute of Health for clinical trial units for HIV and AIDS in Hawaii will have devastating effects for the treatment of HIV and AIDS patients in Hawaii, and will, for all practical purposes, end HIV and AIDS clinical trials. Since the Hawaii AIDS clinical trials unit was established fifteen years ago at the University of Hawaii's John A. Burns School of Medicine, it has participated in two hundred seventy-five drug studies that involved approximately one thousand patients. The Hawaii AIDS clinical trials unit has used its expertise to become an invaluable resource for the medical community and a frontline healthcare provider to HIV and AIDS patients across the State. The legislature recognizes that there is a concern about the exodus of physicians who treat HIV and AIDS patients. As those physicians retire or leave the State, other physicians drop or do not accept HIV and AIDS patients because of the complex care required and the low insurance reimbursement rates. Since the overextended system does not provide for all HIV and AIDS patients, physicians and AIDS service organizations have come to rely on the Hawaii AIDS clinical trials unit, and there is no other agency stepping in to fill the void the Hawaii AIDS clinical trials unit will leave if it discontinues its work. The legislature recognizes that the federal funds previously received constitute two-thirds of the unit's funding and the program cannot continue without the funds. More importantly, given Hawaii's geographic location and the predictable lack of potentially life-saving medications that are developed only in clinical trials, HIV and AIDS patients in Hawaii will no longer have access to potentially life-saving medication available elsewhere in the country.

Accordingly, the purpose of this Act is to appropriate funds for clinical trials units for HIV and AIDS patients in Hawaii.

SECTION 2. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $ , or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2007-2008, and the same sum, or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2008-2009, to fund clinical trial units for HIV/AIDS patients in Hawaii.

SECTION 3. The sums appropriated shall be expended by the University of Hawaii for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2007.

INTRODUCED BY:	_____________________________