STAND. COM. REP. NO. 248

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2019

RE: H.B. No. 141

H.D. 1

Honorable Scott K. Saiki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirtieth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2019

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Health, to which was referred H.B. No. 141 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HEALTH,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to effectuate its title.

H.B. No. 141 was introduced as a short-form bill, which is sometimes referred to as a "vehicle" bill primarily used to introduce a bill containing only a general idea as to the purpose of the bill without specific details in the long form.

Your Committee has amended the bill to provide the substantive contents of the bill in long form so that a public hearing may be properly held on its substantive contents.

The purpose of this measure is to establish permanent resources to achieve the State's goal of establishing telehealth as a community standard for health care access by:

(1) Establishing a Telehealth Advisory Council in the department of health to advise the governor in the development and implementation of a comprehensive plan to establish telehealth as a high quality, cost-effective, and reliable means of health care access; and

(2) Create one permanent full-time equivalent position as the State Telehealth Coordinator to facilitate the establishment of infrastructure and policies across all agencies of the State and private sector to promote the expansion of telehealth in Hawaii.

This measure also establishes a working group to research and make recommendations to reduce barriers related to health care system credentialing, privileging, and related administrative processes that may contribute to delays and inefficiencies for healthcare providers.

No testimony was submitted for this measure.

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 action to report out H.B. No. 141, as amended herein, and recommends that it be recommitted to your Committee on Health, for the purpose of holding a public hearing thereon, in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 141, H.D. 1.

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

____________________________

JOHN M. MIZUNO, Chair