STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1261

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: H.B. No. 951

H.D. 2

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2025

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Health and Human Services, to which was referred H.B. No. 951, H.D. 2, entitled:

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

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to allow a patient who has been seen in person by a health care provider who is in the same medical group as the prescribing physician to be prescribed an opiate prescription for a three-day supply or less via telehealth.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Law Enforcement, Disability and Communications Access Board, and Kaiser Permanente Hawaiʻi.

Your Committee finds that appropriate, timely pain management is an integral part of ensuring high quality, patient-centered health care. Your Committee further finds that as the rising danger of opiates became clear, the Legislature acted to put guardrails in place to protect patients from the harmful effects of overprescribing, long-term use, and addiction. However, your Committee recognizes the need to balance these protections with the need for timely patient access to appropriate pain management. Accordingly, this measure removes barriers to short-term opiate prescriptions while maintaining protections against overprescribing and patient misuse.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Inserting language clarifying that a patient may be prescribed an opiate prescription for a three-day supply or less via telehealth if the patient has been seen in person by a health care provider in the same medical group as the prescribing provider authorized pursuant to section 329-33, Hawaii Revised Statutes, rather than the prescribing physician; and

(2) Making it effective upon its approval.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health and Human Services that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 951, H.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 951, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Health and Human Services,

________________________________

JOY A. SAN BUENAVENTURA, Chair