STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1042

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2025

RE: H.B. No. 951

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. 951, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PRESCRIPTION DRUGS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to allow a patient to be prescribed a three-day supply of opiates via telehealth if the patient has been seen in person by physician in the same medical group as the prescribing physician.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Law Enforcement; Kaiser Permanente Hawaiʻi; and Aloha Green Apothecary. Your Committee received comments on this measure from two individuals.

Your Committee finds that telehealth allows patients to connect with physicians and other health care providers for health care services. In the event of acute pain, telehealth allows for physicians to provide prompt intervention and ensure that the patient has immediate access to pain relief.

However, your Committee further finds that existing law requires a patient to only have access to opiates through a telehealth consultation after first having an in-person consultation with the same prescribing physician. In the event that the patient's primary physician is unavailable, the patient does not have access to opiate medication through telehealth. This measure allows patients to have access to necessary pain medications through telehealth while still safeguarding against inappropriate use and addiction.

Your Committee recognizes that there are health care providers, other than physicians, with prescriptive authority who practice within the same medical group and have already seen the patient in person. These other health care providers play a pivotal role in the State's health care system and this measure should not unduly restrict access to necessary prescriptions simply because the patient's initial in-person consultation was with a health care provider who was not a physician.

Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Reverting the language of this measure, with respect to the initial in-person consultation, to as it was introduced, which allows a patient who has been seen in person by a health care provider in the same medical group as the prescribing physician to be prescribed an opiate prescription for a three-day supply or less via telehealth; 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. 951, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 951, H.D. 2.

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

____________________________

SCOT Z. MATAYOSHI, Chair