STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1249

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 212

       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 Committee on Health, to which was referred H.B. No. 212, H.D. 2, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HEALTH CARE,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to ensure the availability of comprehensive quality health care and alleviate the health care workforce shortage in Hawaii.

     Specifically, this measure appropriates funds to the Department of Health to support the development and maintenance of a statewide comprehensive health care workforce map and database that assesses health care workforce staffing needs and to develop a plan to ensure future health care workforce needs are met.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Mayor of the County of Hawaii, Hawaii Medical Service Association, Hawaii Medical Association, Hawaii Pacific Health, Hawaii Disability Rights Center, and one individual.  The Department of Health and the Department of Human Services submitted testimony in support of the intent of this measure.

     The Mayor of the County of Hawaii included in his supporting testimony an appropriation request in the amount of $500,000 for this important project.

     Your Committee finds that a severe shortage of health care workers exists in our State, especially on the neighbor islands.  Data is essential to understanding our workforce needs and to effectively reform the current health care crisis.

     Your Committee further finds that the State Health Planning and Development Agency is currently working in collaboration with the University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine and numerous other state agencies and professional organizations that are part of a Workforce Hui that have been in discussions regarding a database to help determine workforce supply needs.  This measure is intended to support those collaborative efforts by providing funding to develop and maintain a database for workforce needs analyses.

     Accordingly, your Committee amended this measure by deleting its contents and inserting the contents of S.B. No. 69, S.D. 2, a similar measure that makes the following changes:

(1)  Includes language in section 1 that clarifies the intent to support the Workforce Hui's efforts to compile a health care workforce supply database;

(2)  Removes the Department of Health and designates the State Health Planning and Development Agency as the implementing and expending agency;

(3)  Removes the provision requiring the data collected to be accurate and secure and that data specific to any practitioner be disclosed only with the express written consent of the practitioner;

(4)  Removes the reporting requirement; and

(5)  Changes the effective date from July 1, 2020, to July 1, 2007.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 212, H.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 212, 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 Committee on Health,

____________________________

DAVID Y. IGE, Chair