STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3003

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 2881

       H.D. 2

       S.D. 1

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2008

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committees on Health and Human Services and Public Housing, to which was referred H.B. No. 2881, H.D. 2, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PERINATAL CARE,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to continue the provision of perinatal services for women with histories of substance abuse by making permanent the perinatal clinic that was established pursuant to Act 248, Session Laws of Hawaii 2006.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies, Perinatal Addiction Treatment of Hawaii, The Drug Policy Forum of Hawaii, The Salvation Army, and one individual.  The Department of Human Services and the University of Hawaii at Manoa submitted comments on this measure.

     Your Committees find that since the Perinatal Addiction Treatment of Hawaii (PATH) clinic opened in 2007 it has served over sixty women and delivered sixteen healthy infants.  Making this perinatal clinic permanent will enable the continuance of an important program that adequately addresses the needs of pregnant women suffering from substance abuse and ensure the delivery of healthy infants.

     Your Committees have amended this measure by requiring the perinatal clinic to submit annual reports identifying the services that are being provided, the number of individuals that the services are being provided to, and the effectiveness of those services to the Legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of each regular session.

     Your Committees further amended this measure by making technical, nonsubstantive changes for the purposes of clarity, consistency, and style.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Health and Human Services and Public Housing that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2881, H.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2881, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Health and Human Services and Public Housing,

____________________________ SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair

____________________________ DAVID Y. IGE, Chair