STAND. COM. REP. NO.  1132-08

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2008

RE:   S.B. No. 3028

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2008

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 3028 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO GRADUATES OF FOREIGN ACUPUNCTURE PROGRAMS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to strengthen acupuncture licensing requirements.

Specifically, the bill requires applicants for state acupuncture licensure who graduated from foreign institutes to have their educational information evaluated by a board-approved professional crediting evaluator, at the applicant's own expense, as a prerequisite to taking the acupuncture examination and receiving an acupuncture practitioner's license.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Board of Acupuncture.

Your Committee finds that this measure will assist the Board of Acupuncture in ensuring that all applicants for acupuncture examination and licensing, whether educated in the United States or abroad, meet equivalent standards of acupuncture education.

     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 S.B. No. 3028 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Consumer Protection & Commerce.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Health,

____________________________

JOSHUA B. GREEN, M.D., Chair