Nos. 27491, 27539 (January 26, 2009)
Opinion pdf
OPINION OF THE COURT BY NAKAMURA, J.
Under the provisions of Hawaii Revised Statutes (HRS) §§ 386-73 (Supp. 2007) and 386-87 (1993) of the Hawai'i workers' compensation law, the parties to a decision by the Director of the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations (the Director) have the right to appeal the Director's decision to the Labor and Industrial Relations Appeals Board (LIRAB). The Director has promulgated a rule, Hawaii Administrative Rules (HAR) § 12-15-94(d), prohibiting any appeal of the Director's decisions in billing disputes between employers and medical service providers in workers' compensation cases. HAR § 12-15-94(d) authorizes the Director to resolve such billing disputes without a hearing and provides that "[t]he decision of the [D]irector is final and not appealable."
The question presented in these consolidated appeals is whether the Director was authorized to promulgate a rule prohibiting any appeal of the Director's decisions in billing disputes between employers and medical service providers. We conclude that the Director's no-appeal rule is inconsistent with the statutory right granted to parties to appeal the Director's decisions under HRS §§ 386-73 and 386-87.
We hold that: 1) the provision prohibiting appeal of the Director's decisions in HAR § 12-15-94(d) is invalid as beyond the Director's rulemaking power; 2) Provider-Appellant Emerson M.F. Jou, M.D., (Dr. Jou) is entitled to a declaratory judgment that the no-appeal provision of HAR § 12-15-94(d) is invalid; 3) the Circuit Court of the First Circuit (circuit court) erred in dismissing Dr. Jou's claims for declaratory relief; and 4) although Dr. Jou cannot pursue the merits of his appeals of the Director's decisions before the circuit court, he is entitled to file appeals of the Director's decisions with the LIRAB. [footnotes omitted]
