STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2231

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2237

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 2237 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE HAWAII HEALTH SYSTEMS CORPORATION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds for the interdisciplinary Hawaii Health Systems Corporation primary care training program at Maui Memorial Medical Center.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Health Systems Corporation, Community Alliance for Mental Health, Hawaii Medical Association, Healthcare Association of Hawaii, Maui Memorial Medical Center, Hawaii Primary Care Association, Work Injury Medical Association of Hawaii, and one individual.

     Your Committee finds that the State faces a severe shortage of health care providers.  Your Committee further finds that increasing the potential pool of physicians and other health care providers is an important step toward addressing Hawaii's worsening shortage of physicians.  This measure supports a process to elevate the standard of medical care within Hawaii's communities, as well as a pathway for the development of new medical providers to take the place of the doctors who will be retiring over the next decade.

     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. 2237 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

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

____________________________

JOSH GREEN, Chair