STAND. COM. REP. NO. 151

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 324

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2021

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 324 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to clarify the definition of the practice of medicine in the Hawaii Revised Statutes to provide uniformity of practice for both medical physicians and osteopathic physicians.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Medical Board of the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs and Kaiser Permanente Hawaii.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from Regulated Industries Complaints Office of the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs.

 

     Your Committee finds that because the practice of medicine is already limited to duly licensed practitioners pursuant to section 453-2, Hawaii Revised Statutes, the measure's inclusion of a license requirement is unnecessary and may complicate the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs' ability to prosecute licensing violations.  Your Committee further finds that another bill, S.B. No. 1099, accomplishes the same goal as this measure but without the license requirement.  Therefore, your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Substituting Section 2 of this measure with Section 1 of S.B. No. 1099; and

 

     (2)  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. 324, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 324, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection.

 

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

 

 

 

________________________________

JARRETT KEOHOKALOLE, Chair