Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2001

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Consumer Protection and Commerce, to which was referred H.B. No. 588 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to formalize and reduce regulatory requirements for the biennial renewal of licenses of physicians and surgeons. The current Board of Medical Examiners (BME) continuing education requirement for medical physicians is 40 hours of category 1 learning activities, which include formally organized activities such as meetings, lectures, seminars and workshops, and 60 hours of category 2 activities, which include less structured, non-supervised learning experiences such as consultations with peers and experts, use of electronic databases in patient care, and reading medical journals. This bill:

Testimony in support of this measure was received from the Office of the Lieutenant Governor, BME, and Hawaii Podiatric Medical Association.

Your Committee agrees with BME that the value of unstructured, non-supervised category 2 continuing education activities is questionable and difficult to determine, and that elimination of the BME-established category 2 requirement will help to streamline licensing procedures without adversely impacting consumer protection.

Your Committee also finds that the random audits of continuing education compliance proposed by this bill are a reasonable and streamlined alternative to existing procedures. The license and certification renewal process for medical physicians, emergency medical ambulance service personnel, and podiatrists is cumbersome and time-consuming. Each applicant for renewal must submit written proof of compliance with continuing education requirements. However there is no standard form in which continuing education providers document compliance, and BME must review and evaluate the varying documentation provided by each applicant for license renewal.

Your Committee finds that random audits of compliance are widely employed by jurisdictions requiring continuing education. BME contacted 54 jurisdictions concerning their procedures. Of the 34 that require continuing education, 23 responded, and 22 of these stated that they perform a random audit of compliance.

Your Committee has made technical, nonsubstantive amendments to this bill by striking out bracketed text.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Consumer Protection and Commerce that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 588, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 588, H.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.