STAND. COM. REP. NO. 772

                                   Honolulu, Hawaii
                                                     , 1999

                                   RE:  S.B. No. 1136
                                        S.D. 2




Honorable Norman Mizuguchi
President of the Senate
Twentieth State Legislature
Regular Session of 1999
State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B.
No. 1136, S.D. 1, entitled: 

     "A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO REGULATION OF OSTEOPATHY,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of the bill is to abolish the Board of
Osteopathic Examiners and transfer its regulatory functions to
the Board of Medical Examiners.

     Your Committee finds that the abolition of the Board is
consistent with past sunset reports from the Auditor.  In 1985
and again in 1992, the Auditor recommended that the Board of
Osteopathic Examiners be abolished and its duties folded into the
Board of Medical Examiners, as regulatory activity by the board
has historically been low and the two fields of medicine are
becoming closer.  The Auditor pointed out in its 1992 study that
twenty-one states used medical boards that combined medical
doctors and osteopaths to regulate the professions.

     Your Committee has amended the bill by increasing the number
of osteopaths on the board from two to four, reinstating the
number of physicians at seven, and by increasing total board size
from eleven to thirteen.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your
Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your

 
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                                   STAND. COM. REP. NO. 772
                                   Page 2


Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B.
No. 1136, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass
Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1136,
S.D. 2.

                                 Respectfully submitted on behalf
                                 of the members of the Committee
                                 on Ways and Means,



                                 ________________________________
                                 CAROL FUKUNAGA, Co-Chair



                                 ________________________________
                                 ANDREW LEVIN, Co-Chair

 
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