STAND. COM. REP. NO.  951-12

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2012

RE:   H.B. No. 2152

      H.D. 2

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2012

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Finance, to which was referred H.B. No. 2152, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO WORKERS' COMPENSATION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to increase the workers' compensation fee schedule from 110 percent to 130 percent of the Medicare Resource Based Relative Value Scale applicable to Hawaii, but without affecting the motor vehicle insurance fee schedule.

Hawaii Injured Workers Association; Hawaii Chapter, American Physical Therapy Association; Hawaii Medical Association; Hawaii Laborers' Union; ILWU Local 142; and numerous individuals testified in support of this measure.  Hawaii Insurers Council, Hawaiian Electric Company and its subsidiaries, American Insurance Association, Property Casualty Insurers Association of America, and Building Industry Association of Hawaii testified in opposition to this measure.  The Department of Labor and Industrial Relations and Department of Human Resources Development provided comments on this measure.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by replacing the contents of the measure with language that requires the Office of the Auditor to conduct a study that analyzes the concerns within the healthcare community about the difficulty in providing healthcare in workers' compensation cases due to their low reimbursement rates and changing the effective date to July 1, 2012.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Finance that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2152, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2152, H.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Finance,

____________________________

MARCUS R. OSHIRO, Chair