STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3369

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: H.B. No. 2340

H.D. 2

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2022

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Health, to which was referred H.B. No. 2340, H.D. 2, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CONTROLLED SUBSTANCES,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to allow the use of post office boxes for filling prescriptions, so long as the dispensing pharmacy has the physical location of the patient's residence on file.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from Kaiser Permanente Hawaii. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Board of Pharmacy.

Your Committee finds that under existing law, if a controlled substance prescription has a post office box address, pharmacists must verify the patient's identification, note the identification number on the prescription, and change the patient's address, before dispensing the medication. The number of prescriptions pharmacists receive with post office box addresses is significant, particularly on the neighbor islands. Removing this administrative burden on pharmacists would save them time and allow them to focus on other patient care responsibilities. This measure authorizes pharmacists to eliminate these steps if the patient's physical address is already on file.

Your Committee acknowledges the testimony of Kaiser Permanente Hawaii, which recommended amendments to this measure's preamble to clarify that this measure does not authorize pharmacists to mail controlled substances to post office or rural office boxes.

Therefore, your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Amending section 1 to clarify that this measure is to ease pharmacists' administrative burdens and not to authorize pharmacists to mail controlled substances to a post office or rural office box; and

(2) Inserting an effective date of January 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion.

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 H.B. No. 2340, H.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2340, H.D. 2, 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