Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2004

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection and Housing, to which was referred S.B. No. 2092, S.D. 1, entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to recognize Canadian medical residency programs and the Canadian licensing examination for purposes of qualifying applicants for licensure as physicians.

The Hawaii Medical Service Association and Hawaii Medical Association testified in support of this measure. The Hawaii Coalition for Health opposed the measure. The Board of Medical Examiners submitted comments.

For purposes of qualifying applicants for licensure as physicians, the current law recognizes only residency programs accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), a body that accredits only programs in the United States (U.S.). Your Committee finds that this limitation precludes many foreign medical school graduates from qualifying for licensure, including persons who have undergone training in residency programs comparable to residency programs in the U.S.

Your Committee further finds that Canadian residency programs are accepted by most other states as being comparable to U.S. residency programs. Therefore, this measure authorizes the recognition of residency programs approved by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and the College of Family Physicians of Canada, and permits foreign medical school graduates with two years training in these programs or an ACGME-equivalent program to qualify for licensure. Additionally this measure recognizes the Medical Council of Canada Qualifying Examination for purposes of meeting the examination requirement for licensure.

Your Committee has amended this measure to repeal the Board's authority to accept qualifications based on training under an ACGME-equivalent residency program for graduates of U.S. medical schools and by deleting proposed language that would have established that same authority with respect to foreign medical school graduates. Your Committee also amended this measure by making technical, nonsubstantive changes for clarification and to reflect preferred drafting style.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection and Housing that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2092, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2092, S.D. 2.