STAND. COM. REP. NO. 357

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 972

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2013

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committees on Health and Technology and the Arts, to which was referred S.B. No. 972 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ELECTRONIC PRESCRIPTIONS,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to amend the Uniform Controlled Substances Act in chapter 329, Hawaii Revised Statutes, by:

     (1)  Adding definitions consistent with federal law;

     (2)  Clarifying the conditions for electronic transmittal of prescriptions; and

     (3)  Adding and clarifying violations of prohibited acts.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from Kaiser Permanente Hawaii and CVS Caremark.  Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from one individual.

     Your Committees find that on March 31, 2010, the Drug Enforcement Administration published in the Federal Register its rule "Electronic Prescriptions for Controlled Substances", which became effective on June 1, 2010, and which revises the Drug Enforcement Administration's regulations to provide practitioners with the option of writing prescriptions for controlled substances electronically.  The regulations also permit pharmacies to receive, dispense, and archive these electronic prescriptions for controlled substances.  These new regulations do not mandate that practitioners prescribe controlled substances using only electronic prescriptions, nor do these new regulations require pharmacies to accept only electronic prescriptions for controlled substances for dispensing.  The use of electronic prescriptions for controlled substances is voluntary on the part of the practitioners and pharmacies.  Electronic prescriptions for controlled substances may be conveyed electronically; provided that the electronic prescription and the pharmacy application meet the Drug Enforcement Administration's and state's requirements.

     Your Committees further find that by allowing practitioners to electronically prescribe controlled substances and to convey the prescription directly to the pharmacy of the patient's choice, it will provide practitioners with a safer, more secure, and more timely means to prescribe controlled substances in addition to the conventional means of prescribing controlled substances.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Health and Technology and the Arts that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 972 and recommend that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Health and Technology and the Arts,

____________________________ GLENN WAKAI, Chair

____________________________ JOSH GREEN, Chair