STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1248

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 1477

       H.D. 2

       S.D. 1

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2007

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committees on Health and Education, to which was referred H.B. No. 1477, H.D. 2, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO RURAL PRIMARY HEALTH CARE TRAINING,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to increase access to primary health care services provided by family physicians or residents in the family medicine residency program at the University of Hawaii to medically underserved residents in rural areas of the State.

     Specifically, this measure appropriates funds to support the development of a statewide rural training model by placing primary care physicians who are in their final years of training, in the underserved areas of this State.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health of the University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine, the Mayor of the County of Hawaii, Hawaii Primary Care Association, University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine, Hawaii Medical Service Association, Hilo Medical Center, Hawaii Health Systems Corporation, the Hawaii Quentin Burdick Rural Health Interdisciplinary Training Program, Maui Memorial Medical Center, and four individuals.

     Your Committees find that presently, family medicine program residents spend two months in a federally-funded rural healthcare training demonstration project, initiated in Hilo in 2006, in which residents learn how to provide healthcare to medically underserved patients in rural areas as they rotate among private physician offices, emergency departments, and the community, providing outreach and education.  It is anticipated that the Hilo rural health training program will be duplicated on Kauai.  Additional training sites will be developed in conjunction with the health master planning process underway in Maui and with the hospital and community health center system on Kauai.  As these sites are being developed, the curriculum can be structured so that family medicine residents have the opportunity to rotate to neighbor island sites other than Hilo.

     Your Committees further find that this residency program is an integral component of the health care workforce development in rural areas of the State.  It will provide opportunities to bring qualified health care professionals to rural areas that have been designated as medically underserved, health professional shortage areas.

     Your Committees amended this measure by:

     (1)  Clarifying that additional training sites will be developed in conjunction with the health master planning process underway in Maui and with the hospital and community health center system on Kauai; and

     (2)  Including an appropriation in the amount of $400,000 for the Hawaii Quentin Burdick Rural Health Interdisciplinary Training Program.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Health and Education that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1477, H.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1477, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Health and Education,

____________________________ NORMAN SAKAMOTO, Chair

____________________________ DAVID Y. IGE, Chair