STAND. COM. REP. NO. 488

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 1421

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2007

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 1421 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CHAPTER 460, HAWAII REVISED STATUTES, OSTEOPATHY,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this measure is to clarify the regulatory law regarding osteopathy.

 

     Specifically, this measure, among other things, would:

 

     (1)  Allow the Board of Medical Examiners (BME) to issue an educational teaching license to an osteopathic physician who is not licensed in this State and who is invited by the chief of service of a clinical department of a hospital to provide and promote professional education;

 

     (2)  Allow the BME to issue a limited or temporary license to an osteopathic physician to maintain patient services for the purpose of substituting for another licensed osteopath in this State who is participating in specialized training at an out-of-state fully accredited medical teaching institution;

 

     (3)  Require every osteopathy physician attending or treating  certain wounds caused by violence or sustained in a suspicious or unusual manner or in certain motor vehicle collisions, or whenever the case is treated in a hospital, clinic, or other institution the manager, superintendent, or person in charge, to report to the county chief of police certain information about the person sustaining the injury and the nature of the injury;

 

     (4)  Allow a pathologist or any licensed osteopathic physician to conduct a postmortem examination upon written consent of specified persons who have custody of the body for purposes of burial;

 

     (5)  Allow abortions to be performed by licensed osteopathic physicians in a licensed hospital; and

 

     (6)  Make other clarifying amendments to the regulated profession of osteopathy.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Board of Medical Examiners and the Hawaii Medical Association.

 

     Your Committee finds that the regulatory laws of osteopathy should be very similar to the regulatory laws of physicians and surgeons, inasmuch as both professions are alike in the scope of practice.  This measure accomplishes that parallelism.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for purposes of clarity and style.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1421, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1421, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Affordable Housing.

 

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

 

 

 

____________________________

DAVID Y. IGE, Chair