STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1044

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2025

RE: H.B. No. 423

H.D. 2

Honorable Nadine K. Nakamura

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2025

State of Hawaii

Madame:

Your Committee on Consumer Protection & Commerce, to which was referred H.B. No. 423, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO WORKERS' COMPENSATION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to:

(1) Clarify the process for selecting a certified provider of rehabilitation services;

(2) Require a provider to automatically approve an injured employee for vocational rehabilitation services if the provider determines that the injured employee will likely require vocational rehabilitation services to return to suitable gainful employment; and

(3) Require a provider to file the employee's plan no later than ninety days after the submission of the initial evaluation report.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Human Resources Development; Hawaii Medical Association; and Hawaii Insurers Council. Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the International Association of Rehabilitation Professionals, Hawaii Chapter; Hawaii Rehabilitation Counseling Association; Vocational Management Consultants, Inc.; and numerous individuals. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations and one individual.

Your Committee finds that the intent of the workers' compensation law is to assist an injured employee to return to the active labor force as quickly as possible and to restore the employee's earning capacity as nearly as possible to the level the employee earned at the time of the injury in a cost-effective manner. This measure provides a streamlined process to assist these injured employees to return to suitable gainful employment as quickly as possible and in a cost-effective manner.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Reverting the language of this measure, with respect to the filing of the injured employee's plan, to as it was introduced, which does not specify a deadline for the filing of the employee's plan; and

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

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Consumer Protection & Commerce that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 423, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 423, H.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Consumer Protection & Commerce,

____________________________

SCOT Z. MATAYOSHI, Chair