STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2091

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2351

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committees on Health and Commerce and Consumer Protection, to which was referred S.B. No. 2351 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CHILDHOOD OBESITY,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

     (1)  Require primary care physicians and pediatricians to administer an annual body mass index measurement to children, beginning at the age of two years old, and report the data to the Department of Health; and

     (2)  Establish mandatory insurance coverage for body mass indexing for patients from age two to eighteen.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Health and two individuals.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from one individual.

     Your Committees find that childhood obesity often leads to health problems such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol.  This measure enables physicians to detect and address obesity problems at an early age, while engaging families and children with their physicians.

     Your Committees find that the Hawaii Health Information Exchange (Exchange) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization established by Hawaii's leading health care stakeholders to improve health care delivery across the State through a seamless, effective, and secure health information exchange.  As the state-designated entity for implementing the statewide health information exchange that will ultimately feed into the nationwide eHealth Exchange technology network, the Exchange has received federal grant monies to implement and operationalize comprehensive statewide health information exchange services within and beyond the State.  The Exchange started connecting health care providers to its network in 2012 and has connected over six hundred users and one hundred eighty physician practices, rural pharmacies, and large health care providers.  Your Committees find that the data reporting requirement proposed by this measure would be duplicative to the efforts of the Exchange and could be better effectuated through incorporation into the existing efforts of the Exchange.

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

     (1)  Requiring physicians and pediatricians to collaborate via statewide health insurance claims data to annually report anonymous age and body mass index statistics to the Hawaii Health Information Exchange, rather than requiring them to report the data to the Department of Health; and

     (2)  Making a technical amendment to section 1 to reflect the amended purpose of the measure.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Health and Commerce and Consumer Protection that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2351, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2351, 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 Commerce and Consumer Protection,

____________________________ ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair

____________________________ JOSH GREEN, Chair