STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2022

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 2052

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 2052 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE HAWAII RULES OF EVIDENCE,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to establish a rule of evidence to exclude the admissibility of medical apologies to prove liability.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Medical Association, Healthcare Association of Hawaii, Hawaii Pacific Health, and Hawaii Association of Professional Nurses.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Hawaii Association for Justice.

 

     Your Committee finds that health care providers should be permitted to express compassion, apology, and other benevolent acts without fear of their statements or acts being used as evidence of liability when a patient experiences adverse outcomes.  This measure will improve communications between health care providers and patients and reduce unnecessary litigation.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Inserting an effective date of January 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion; and

 

     (2)  Making a technical, nonsubstantive amendment 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. 2052, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2052, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Labor.

 

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

 

 

 

____________________________

JOSH GREEN, Chair