STAND. COM. REP. NO.  1119-16

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2016

RE:   S.B. No. 2376

      S.D. 1

      H.D. 1

Honorable Joseph M. Souki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2016

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 2376, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PRESCRIPTION DRUG BENEFITS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to authorize a beneficiary of a prescription drug benefit plan whose residence is 10 or more miles away from the nearest retail community pharmacy to obtain a prescription, without penalty, from a non-network retail community pharmacy located within 10 miles of the beneficiary's residence.

An individual testified in support of this measure.  The Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs commented on this measure.  The Hawaii Employer-Union Health Benefits Trust Fund Board of Trustees, Express Scripts, Kaiser Permanente Hawaii, Walgreen Company, ‘Ohana Health Plan, Hawaii Association of Health Plans, Hawaii Medical Service Association, and CVS Hawaii opposed this measure.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1)  Specifying that the provisions in this measure apply to any county with an area of 2,000 square miles or more;

(2)  Deleting the amount of the dispensing fee to be reimbursed to a non-network retail community pharmacy;

(3)  Requiring the Insurance Commissioner to submit reports annually to the Legislature prior to the convening of the 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021 Regular Sessions on the effects of this measure on healthcare costs; and

(4)  Changing its effective date to July 1, 2112, repealing this measure on June 30, 2021, and reenacting section 431R-5, Hawaii Revised Statutes, in the form it read the day before this measure's effective date.

Should this measure proceed further in the legislative process, your Committee respectfully requests the Department of Human Services to be available to provide information at the next committee hearing on the dispensing fee reimbursement to non-network retail community pharmacies, relative to the Medicaid program.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2376, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2376, S.D. 1, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Consumer Protection & Commerce.

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

____________________________

DELLA AU BELATTI, Chair