STAND. COM. REP. NO. 34

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 1046

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fifth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2009

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committees on Higher Education and Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 1046 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HEALTH PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds to support the Hawaii Quentin Burdick rural health interdisciplinary training program.

     Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the University of Hawai‘i, Hawaii Medical Service Association, Hawaii Association for Justice, Na Pu‘uwai Native Hawaiian Health Care System, and eleven individuals.

     Your Committees find that the Hawaii Quentin Burdick program began with funding by a federal grant from the Department of Health and Human Services Bureau of Health Professions, Health Resources and Services Administration, and that since early 2006, the Legislature has provided funding that allows the program to continue.  Your Committees have heard testimony from a number of practicing health care professionals who credit their career choices to participation in the program, and your Committees are strongly supportive of the benefits the program brings to rural areas of the State.

     Your Committees support funding the Hawaii Quentin Burdick rural health interdisciplinary training program at $400,000 in each year of the coming biennium.  However, given the State's current economic constraints, your Committees also urge the program's administrators to seek alternative funding, including opportunities that may be available through the state and federal economic stimulus packages.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Higher Education and Health that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1046 and recommend that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

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

____________________________ DAVID Y. IGE, Chair

____________________________ JILL TOKUDA, Chair