STAND. COM. REP. NO. 90

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 49

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 S.B. No. 49 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO TERMINAL ILLNESSES,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to authorize manufacturers of investigational drugs or biological products that are pending approval by the United States Food and Drug Administration to make the drugs or products available to terminally ill patients under certain conditions.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawai‘i Association of Professional Nurses.

Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Health.

Your Committee finds that terminally ill patients may have their care options severely restricted until an investigational drug or biological product is approved for general use. Your Committee further finds that, to help terminally ill patients obtain timely access to medical treatments, the federal government and forty-one states have enacted "right-to-try" legislation, which makes available to these patients drugs that are pending approval by the United States Food and Drug Administration. This measure empowers patients with terminal illnesses by expanding access to potentially life-saving or life-extending investigational treatments.

Your Committee recognizes the testimony of the Hawai‘i Association of Professional Nurses requesting that health care providers other than physicians, such as advanced practice registered nurses, also be allowed to fully participate in providing care to patients with terminal illnesses pursuant to this measure. Your Committee also notes the concerns raised by the Department of Health that the measure, as proposed, adds the new statutory provisions to chapter 321, Hawaii Revised Statutes, which governs the Department of Health, despite the provisions including no roles or responsibilities for the Department.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Moving the proposed statutory provision from chapter 321, Hawaii Revised Statutes, to a new chapter;

(2) Replacing all references to "physician" with "health care provider";

(3) Inserting language defining "health care provider";

(4) Inserting an effective date of December 31, 2050, to encourage further discussion; and

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

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 S.B. No. 49, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 49, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committees on Commerce and Consumer Protection and Judiciary.

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

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JOY A. SAN BUENAVENTURA, Chair