STAND. COM. REP. NO. 281

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 874

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2013

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred S.B. No. 874 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO WORKERS' COMPENSATION,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to clarify that the duly qualified impartial physician appointed by the Director of Labor and Industrial Relations to examine an injured employee is a physician whose specialty is appropriate for the injury being examined for a workers' compensation claim.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, Work Injury Medical Association of Hawaii, Hawaii Medical Association, and Plumbers and Fitters Union, Local 675.  The Department of Human Resources Development submitted comments.

 

     Your Committee finds that existing law does not specify that a physician appointed by the Director of Labor and Industrial Relations must be a physician whose specialty is appropriate for the injury being examined.  This measure provides that a physician knowledgeable in the injury of the claimant will examine the claimant and creates greater efficiencies in the workers' compensation process.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Labor that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 874 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary and Labor,

 

 

 

____________________________

CLAYTON HEE, Chair