STAND. COM. REP. NO. 35

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 222

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2011

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 222 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PERINATAL CARE,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds for the continued operation of the PATH Clinic in order to provide continued prenatal, delivery, and postpartum care and social services to women who have a history of substance use.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Health, The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, PATH Clinic, Community Alliance on Prisons, March of Dimes Foundation Hawaii Chapter, The Drug Policy Action Group, the Drug Policy Forum of Hawaii, Women's Caucus Democratic Party of Hawaii, Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies Coalition of Hawaii, Planned Parenthood of Hawaii, and fourteen private citizens.

 

     Your Committee finds that, although funding sources are available for medical services, essential social services that are provided by the PATH Clinic remain unfunded.  Appropriating funds for this Clinic will allow the Clinic to provide much needed social services to women with a history of substance abuse.  Your Committee received testimony from the PATH Clinic indicating that the measure incorrectly lists the Clinic's name as Perinatal Addiction Treatment of Hawaii and clarified that the proper clinic name is the PATH Clinic.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Substituting the name "Perinatal Addiction Treatment of Hawaii" with "PATH Clinic" throughout the measure to accurately reflect the Clinic's name;

 

     (2)  Clarifying that the appropriation is a grant pursuant to chapter 42F, Hawaii Revised Statutes; and

 

     (3)  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 that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 222, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 222, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 

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

 

 

 

____________________________

JOSH GREEN, M.D., Chair