STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2762

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2635

S.D. 2

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2022

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection, to which was referred S.B. No. 2635, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO COVERAGE FOR MAMMOGRAPHY,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to require insurers and mutual benefit societies to cover mandated services for mammography at least as favorably as coverage for other radiological examinations.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Hawaii Medical Association, and one individual. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Health.

Your Committee finds that preventative health care services such as mammograms allow Hawaii's people to take proactive choices for their personal health. Currently, a mammogram is the best way to find breast cancer for most women at the screening age of fifty to seventy-four years old. Despite the recommendation of an annual mammogram, some women delay crucial screenings because of high out-of-pocket expenses, leading to delays in diagnoses that may result in serious adverse health outcomes.

To align with the Hawaii Cancer Plan 2030, increasing breast cancer screening rates is a priority for both the Center for Disease Control and Prevention-funded programs, Hawaii Breast and Cervical Cancer Control Program, and Hawaii Comprehensive Cancer Control Program within the Department of Health. The Hawaii Breast and Cervical Cancer Control Program is a crucial program that provides critical screening and early detection services to high risk, uninsured, and underinsured, and rarely or never-before screened women between the ages of fifty and sixty-four.

Your Committee also notes the comments from the Insurance Commissioner of the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs' Insurance Division that this measure, as drafted, will ensure a base level of coverage for breast cancer screening under current insurance mandates consistent with coverage for other radiological exams.

Your Committee has amended this measure by inserting an effective date of January 1, 2023.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2635, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2635, S.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection,

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ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair