STAND. COM. REP. NO.  1168

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2015

RE:   S.B. No. 304

      S.D. 2

      H.D. 1

Honorable Joseph M. Souki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 304, S.D. 2, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HEALTH,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to improve health care services for women in the State by establishing the Hawaii Maternal Morbidity and Mortality Review Panel to conduct comprehensive, multidisciplinary reviews of maternal deaths in the State to identify factors associated with the deaths and make recommendations for system improvements.

The Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women, Hawaii Public Health Association, Hawaii Association of Professional Nurses, and several individuals testified in support of this measure.  The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Hawaii Section; Hawaii Medical Association; Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies Coalition of Hawaii; AAUW Windward; and an individual testified in support of this measure with amendments.  The Department of Health commented on this measure.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1)  Removing all references to morbidity in the measure to avoid inadvertently exceeding the intended scope of the panel's functions;

(2)  Deleting a provision that would have amended information sharing protections for purposes of maternal mortality research and studies;

(3)  Changing its effective date to July 1, 2112, to facilitate further discussion; and

(4)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

Should the Committee on Finance deliberate this measure further, your Committee respectfully requests that it consider appropriating $10,000 for each year of the 2015-2017 Fiscal Biennium for the implementation and operation of the Maternal Mortality Review Panel.    

     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. 304, S.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 304, S.D. 2, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Finance.

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

____________________________

DELLA AU BELATTI, Chair