STAND. COM. REP. NO. 491

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 25

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. 25 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO MEDICAL CARE FOR MINORS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

(1) Permit minors to consent to medical care related to the diagnosis or treatment of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or the prevention of HIV; and

(2) Provide that a minor, under certain circumstances, will not be liable for payment for treatment or prevention of HIV.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Health, Kaiser Permanente Hawaii, LGBT Caucus of the Democratic Party of Hawai‘i, Hawai‘i Health & Harm Reduction Center, Mālama I Ke Ola Health Center, Hawaii Youth Services Network, Pride at Work - Hawai‘i, Hawai‘i Academy of Physician Assistants, and eight individuals. Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from one individual.

Your Committee finds that persons between the ages of thirteen and twenty-four accounted for twenty-one percent of new diagnoses of new HIV diagnoses in 2017. Of those, forty-four percent were unaware of their HIV status. Your Committee further finds that this age group is the least likely to test for HIV, receive HIV treatment or be virally suppressed, or be offered HIV prevention treatment. This measure enables and encourage minors age fourteen to seventeen to obtain HIV related medical care without involvement of a parent or guardian.

Your Committee recognizes the testimony of Kaiser Permanente Hawaii, which notes that in Hawaii, physician assistants practice in primary care and in every medical and surgical subspeciality and proposes amendments that would allow physician assistants to also provide the medical services in the measure.

Therefore, your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Authorizing licensed physician assistants to perform the same medical care and services related to HIV as licensed physicians and advanced practice registered nurses; 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. 25, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 25, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Judiciary.

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

________________________________

JARRETT KEOHOKALOLE, Chair