REPORT TITLE:
Medical Professional Licensing


DESCRIPTION:
Requires health care providers to provide specific information to
their respective boards for dissemination to the public upon
request.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                                        
THE SENATE                              S.B. NO.           988
TWENTIETH LEGISLATURE, 1999                                
STATE OF HAWAII                                            
                                                             
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                   A  BILL  FOR  AN  ACT


RELATING TO MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL LICENSING. 


BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

 1      SECTION 1.  The legislature finds that health care consumers
 
 2 are becoming increasingly more sophisticated and the demand for
 
 3 information to help guide their health care decision making has
 
 4 increased dramatically.  Hawaii responded to this demand by
 
 5 passing the Hawaii Patient Bill of Rights and Responsibilities
 
 6 Act, Act 178, Session Laws of Hawaii 1998.  This new law allows
 
 7 consumers to access information about health plans that was
 
 8 previously unavailable to the public, and enables consumers to
 
 9 choose a health plan that offers benefits and services that best
 
10 match their health care needs.
 
11      Because health care providers, not health plans, deliver
 
12 care to consumers, more information also must be made available
 
13 to allow consumers to choose the best provider.  Aside from board
 
14 certification, the Hawaii Patient Bill of Rights and
 
15 Responsibilities Act did not require the disclosure of
 
16 information about the qualifications or experience of health care
 
17 providers.  Choosing a provider is one of the most important
 
18 health care decisions a consumer can make, yet there is no easily
 
19 accessible relevant information about health care providers
 

 
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 1 available to the public. 
 
 2      It is critical that the State of Hawaii develop a public
 
 3 policy that supports the right of consumers to have essential
 
 4 information that allows them to make better-informed decisions
 
 5 when selecting their health care providers.  Forty states have
 
 6 mandated the collection, analysis, and public distribution of
 
 7 health care data.
 
 8      The purpose of this Act is to continue the work of the
 
 9 Hawaii Patient Bill of Rights and Responsibilities Act, to ensure
 
10 consumer protection in health care by requiring health care
 
11 providers to submit to the respective licensing board specific
 
12 information about the provider, which can then be disseminated by
 
13 those boards to the public upon request. 
 
14      SECTION 2.   Title 25, Hawaii Revised Statutes is amended by
 
15 adding a new chapter to be appropriately designated and to read
 
16 as follows:
 
17                             "CHAPTER
 
18              PHYSICIAN INFORMATION TO ENSURE QUALITY
 
19      § -1 Definitions.  As used in this chapter:
 
20      "Board" means the professional licensing and registration
 
21 board, respectively, for each of the named providers. 
 
22      "Department" means the department of commerce and consumer
 
23 affairs.
 
24      "Provider" means the following:
 
25      (1)  Chiropractors licensed pursuant to chapter 442;
 
26      (2)  Dentists licensed pursuant to chapter 448;
 
27      (3)  Physicians and surgeons licensed pursuant to chapter
 
28           453;
 
29      (4)  Optometric physicians licensed pursuant to chapter 459;
 
30      (5)  Osteopathic physicians licensed pursuant to chapter
 
31           460;
 
32      (6)  Podiatrists licensed pursuant to chapter 463E; and
 
33      (7)  Psychologists licensed pursuant to chapter 465.  
 
34      § -2 Provider information requirement.(a)  In addition
 
35 to any other information that may be required from an applicant,
 
36 each person who applies for initial licensure as a provider or
 
37 who applies for license renewal as a provider, must submit to
 
38 their respective licensing boards at the time of application, the
 
39 following information to create an individual provider profile
 
40 that shall be available for dissemination to the public:
 
41      (1)  Names of professional schools attended and dates of
 
42           graduation;
 
43      (2)  Graduate professional education;
 
44      (3)  Number of years in practice;
 
45      (4)  Specialty board certification;
 
46      (5)  Type of practice for the past ten years;
 
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 1      (6)  Names of hospitals where the licensee has privileges;
 
 2      (7)  Appointments to medical school faculties and
 
 3           indication as to whether a licensee has a
 
 4           responsibility for graduate medical education within
 
 5           the past ten years;
 
 6      (8)  Information regarding publications in peer-reviewed
 
 7           medical literature within the past ten years;
 
 8      (9)  Information regarding professional or community service
 
 9           activities and awards;
 
10     (10)  Location of the licensee's primary practice setting;
 
11     (11)  Indication of whether the licensee participates in
 
12           Medicaid, Medicare, and QUEST programs;
 
13     (12)  Percentage of ownership interest a provider has in
 
14           other health facilities, laboratories, equipment, or
 
15           therapy, except for ownership interests in the primary
 
16           practice business, to which the provider's patients
 
17           are, have been, or may be referred; 
 
18     (13)  Description of any criminal convictions for felonies
 
19           and misdemeanors within the past ten years;
 
20     (14)  Description of any charges to which a provider pleads
 
21           nolo contendere or where sufficient facts of guilt
 
22           where found and the matter was continued without a
 
23           finding by a court of competent jurisdiction;
 

 
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 1     (15)  Temporary restraining orders issued;
 
 2     (16)  Description of any final board disciplinary action
 
 3           within the past ten years;
 
 4     (17)  Description of any final disciplinary actions by
 
 5           licensing boards in other states within the past ten
 
 6           years;
 
 7     (18)  Limitations on practice ordered by the board;
 
 8     (19)  Public letters of reprimand issued;
 
 9     (20)  Description of revocation or involuntary restriction of
 
10           hospital privileges, or a reduction in privileges for
 
11           more that one hundred eighty days, from any state, for
 
12           reasons related to competence or character after
 
13           procedural due process has been afforded;
 
14     (21)  Whether the provider has ever been sanctioned by the
 
15           federal government within the past ten years; 
 
16     (22)  Whether the provider carries professional malpractice
 
17           insurance, and if yes, what kind of insurance;
 
18     (23)  Whether the provider has ever been denied malpractice
 
19           insurance for other than inactive status of license or
 
20           part-time practice; and
 
21     (24)  All final medical malpractice court judgments and all
 
22           final medical malpractice arbitration awards in excess
 
23           of $3,000 in which a payment is awarded to a
 

 
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 1           complaining party during the past ten years and all
 
 2           settlements of medical malpractice claims in which a
 
 3           payment is made to a complaining party within the past
 
 4           ten years; providing that nothing herein shall be
 
 5           construed to prevent the board from investigating and
 
 6           disciplining a licensee on the basis of medical
 
 7           malpractice claims that are pending.
 
 8      (b)  In addition to the information in subsection (a), the
 
 9 provider must include a statement, signed under oath by the
 
10 provider, attesting to the correctness and completeness of the
 
11 information contained in the profile.
 
12      (c)  Each provider shall update the information in
 
13 subsection (a)(13) to (24), in writing by notifying the
 
14 respective board within forty-five days after the occurrence of
 
15 an event.
 
16      (d)  All other updated information shall be submitted
 
17 annually in a statement, signed under oath by the provider,
 
18 attesting to the correctness and completeness of the information
 
19 contained in the up-dated profile.
 
20      (e)  The provider may submit an appropriate explanatory
 
21 statement to be included with any information released.
 
22      § -3  Discipline.(a)  Failure to comply with the
 
23 requirements of section    -2, shall constitute grounds for
 

 
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 1 disciplinary action under each respective licensing chapter.  
 
 2      (b)  If the provider fails to comply with the requirements
 
 3 of section    -2, the appropriate board shall:
 
 4      (1)  Refuse to issue a license to any provider applying for
 
 5           initial licensure or license renewal;
 
 6      (2)  Issue a citation to any licensee who fails to submit
 
 7           and update the required information, and may fine the
 
 8           licensee up to $50 a day for each day that the licensee
 
 9           is not in compliance with section    -2; or
 
10      (3)  Take any other disciplinary action it deems
 
11           appropriate.
 
12      § -4 Public dissemination of information.(a)  The
 
13 respective board shall collect the provider information and
 
14 submit it to the department.  The department shall create a data
 
15 repository and make the provider information available in written
 
16 form, upon request, and electronically where available, to the
 
17 public for dissemination.  
 
18      (b)  The respective boards may formulate appropriate
 
19 disclaimers or explanatory statements to be included with any
 
20 information released by the department."
 
21      SECTION 3.  If any provision of this Act, or the application
 
22 thereof to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the
 
23 invalidity does not affect other provisions or applications of
 

 
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 1 the Act which can be given effect without the invalid provision
 
 2 or application, and to this end the provisions of this Act are
 
 3 severable.
 
 4      SECTION 4.  This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2001.
 
 5 
 
 6                           INTRODUCED BY:  _______________________