Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2006

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Housing and Health, to which was referred S.C.R. No. 150 entitled:

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to urge the Insurance Commissioner to convene a task force to study issues related to the physician on-call crisis.

Specifically, the task force is asked to:

Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by Healthcare Association of Hawaii, Hawaii Pacific Health, Kaiser Permanente, and Hawaii Health Systems Corporation. The Insurance Commissioner, on behalf of the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, submitted testimony in opposition to this measure.

Two recent reports, "The National Report Card on the State of Emergency Medicine" published by the American College of Emergency Physicians and "On-Call Crisis in Trauma Care: Government Responses" published by the Legislative Reference Bureau, highlight the serious challenges facing emergency health care systems, including the crisis of securing physicians for emergency, on-call care. Your Committees find that this on-call physician crisis must be addressed in order to ensure the integrity of emergency and trauma care in Hawaii.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Housing and Health that are attached to this report, your Committees concur with the intent and purpose of S.C.R. No. 150 and recommend its adoption.