STAND. COM. REP. NO. 11

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2025

RE: H.B. No. 480

H.D. 1

Honorable Nadine K. Nakamura

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2025

State of Hawaii

Madame:

Your Committee on Labor, to which was referred H.B. No. 480 entitled:

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

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to streamline the approval process for functional capacity exams to ensure automatic approval of such exams when requested by the attending physician for an injured employee.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations; Hawaiʻi Association of Professional Nurses; Hawaii Insurers Council; and one individual. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Human Resources and Development.

Your Committee finds that injured employees should receive medically necessary functional capacity exams upon a qualifying referral to improve the recovery of the injured employee. Your Committee further finds that functional capacity exams are critical for assessing whether an injured employee can return to work with or without accommodations, or to proceed with vocational rehabilitation when return to work is not possible. Currently, functional capacity exams are delayed because of pending approvals from insurers or adjustors. This process is further delayed by limiting who is qualified to perform functional capacity exams. Your Committee believes that this measure ensures the injured employee receives a functional capacity exam in a timely manner by authorizing attending physicians to request functional capacity exams without first obtaining the approval from an employer, and by allowing licensed occupational and physical therapists to perform these exams.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Specifying that a functional capacity exam can be requested when an injured employee has reached medical stabilization and is permanently unable to return to their usual and customary work; and

(2) Changing the effective date to July 1, 3000, to encourage further discussion.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Labor that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 480, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 480, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Consumer Protection & Commerce.

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

____________________________

JACKSON D. SAYAMA, Chair