STAND. COM. REP. NO. 636

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 818

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 818 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO TUBERCULOSIS TESTING,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

     (1)  Require the Department of Health to accept tuberculosis blood tests in addition to the tuberculosis skin test for the purpose of obtaining a certificate of tuberculosis examination;

     (2)  Amend the law requiring tuberculosis clearance prior to public school entry to be in accordance with law rather than with Department of Health rules; and

     (3)  Clarify that the Department of Health's administrative rules regarding the use of the Mantoux tuberculin skin test or chest x-rays in obtaining a certificate of tuberculosis examination shall remain in effect until amended to include the addition of tuberculosis blood tests as an acceptable tuberculosis diagnostic.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Health and Department of Education.

     Your Committee finds that many people are required to be tested for tuberculosis:  children entering school, school personnel, personnel working with higher-risk populations, students enrolling in higher education, and others.  The addition of Food and Drug Administration-approved, Centers for Communicable Disease and Prevention-recommended tests for tuberculosis infection as an approved tuberculosis diagnostic is necessary because it is a more appropriate test for those who have received the bacille Calmette-Guerin tuberculosis vaccine, individuals opposed to the tuberculin injection, and people for whom returning for a second appointment to check for a skin reaction is a hardship.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Replacing references to interferon-gamma release assay tuberculosis blood tests with "Food and Drug Administration-approved, Centers for Communicable Disease and Prevention-recommended tests for tuberculosis infection" as acceptable tests for the purpose of obtaining a certificate of tuberculosis examination;

     (2)  Amending language to require tuberculosis clearance prior to public school entry to be in accordance with both Department of Health rules and state law; and

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

     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. 818, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 818, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

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

____________________________

JOSH GREEN, Chair