STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2514

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2869

       S.D. 2

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred S.B. No. 2869, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PRIVACY OF HEALTH CARE INFORMATION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to protect the confidentiality of developmental disability and mental health information while allowing reasonable use and disclosure as provided by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA).

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Health, State Council on Developmental Disabilities, and one individual.

     Your Committee finds that allowing the reasonable use and disclosure of health records may benefit individuals, while ensuring the safety of the general public, by sharing information for purposes of treatment, payment, or health care operations.  This measure allows health care providers that hold developmental disability and mental health records to share and access health care information using the HIPAA privacy rule, rather than the stricter and lesser known state laws.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by making a technical, nonsubstantive amendment for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Labor that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2869, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2869, S.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary and Labor,

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CLAYTON HEE, Chair