STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2992

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 2403

       H.D. 1

       S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2016

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committees on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health and Transportation and Energy, to which was referred H.B. No. 2403, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE MEDICAL ADVISORY BOARD,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to amend the composition of the Medical Advisory Board.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Transportation.

     Your Committees find that under existing law, the Medical Advisory Board must consist of one psychiatrist, one neurologist, one orthopedic surgeon, one ophthalmologist or optometrist, and one specialist in cardiovascular disease.  However, efforts to recruit physicians in certain specialties to serve on the Board have been unsuccessful.  Inability to recruit physicians with these specific specialties also make it difficult for the Board to obtain quorum for decision making purposes.  This measure addresses these concerns by adjusting the composition of the Medical Advisory Board to more broadly include five physicians with an interest in psychiatry, neurology, orthopedics, ophthalmology or optometry, endocrinology, geriatrics, or addiction medicine.

     Your Committees have amended this measure by amending its effective date to upon approval.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health and Transportation and Energy that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2403, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2403, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health and Transportation and Energy,

________________________________ LORRAINE R. INOUYE, Chair

________________________________ ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair