STAND. COM. REP. NO.  1492

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2009

RE:   S.B. No. 113

      H.D. 1

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Fifth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2009

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committees on Consumer Protection & Commerce and Judiciary, to which was referred S.B. No. 113 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO DENTISTS,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this bill is to protect dental patients by clarifying the authority of the Board of Dental Examiners (Board) to sanction licensees for false or misleading advertising.

     The Hawaii Dental Association and several concerned individuals testified in support of this bill.  The Board opposed this measure.

     This bill seeks to ensure that dentists will not advertise themselves as specialists in areas for which the dentist has not met educational requirements.  However, the Board expressed concerns that this bill may be redundant of existing statutory prohibitions against false, fraudulent, and misleading advertisements, as well as corresponding amendments being proposed for the Board's administrative rules.

     Your Committees have amended this bill by changing the effective date to January 1, 2090, to encourage further discussion.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Consumer Protection & Commerce and Judiciary that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 113, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 113, H.D. 1.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Consumer Protection & Commerce and Judiciary,

____________________________ JON RIKI KARAMATSU, Chair

____________________________ ROBERT N. HERKES, Chair