Bill Text: HI SB517 | 2010 | Regular Session | Amended

---

Bill Title: Certain Health Care Professionals; Authority to Sign

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2009-05-11 - Carried over to 2010 Regular Session. [SB517 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2010-SB517-Amended.html

---

 

 

STAND. COM. REP. NO. 292

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 517

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fifth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2009

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 517 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONALS,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this measure is to address issues resulting from health care provider shortages and ensure quality health care delivery by updating signature authority for certain medical professionals.

 

     Specifically, this measure permits physician assistants, nurse practitioners, registered nurses, clinical nurse specialists, and certified nurse midwives, who provide the actual care, to sign certain medical certification forms for their patients applicable to the care provided within each practitioner's scope of practice.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from Hawaii Primary Care Association, the School of Nursing and Dental Hygiene of the University of Hawaii at Manoa, the Occupational Therapy Association of Hawaii, and one individual.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Board of Nursing, the Hawaii Association for Professional Nurses, and one individual.  Comments on this measure were received from the Hawaii Medical Board and Kaiser Permanente.

 

     Copies of written testimony are available for review on the Legislature's website.

 

     Your Committee finds that certified registered nurse anesthetists, clinical nurse specialists, and certified nurse midwives are recognized by state boards of nursing in all fifty states as advanced practice registered nurses.  Further, providing registered nurses with signature authority was not the intent of the measure.

 

     Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by adopting the recommendations of the Board of Nursing by:

 

     (1)  Clarifying that all advanced practice registered nurses who provide the actual care, may sign certain medical certification forms for their patients applicable to the care provided within each practitioner's scope of practice;

 

     (2)  Removing the authority of registered nurses to sign certain medical certification forms;

 

     (3)  Clarifying that the documents that are authorized to be signed are those within each practitioner's scope of practice, and not limited to only those listed in the measure; and

 

     (4)  Changing the effective date to July 1, 2050 to encourage further discussion on this matter.

 

     Your Committee has further amended this measure by making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and style.

 

     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. 517, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 517, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection.

 

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

 

		____________________________ DAVID Y. IGE, Chair