STAND. COM. REP. NO.  640-16

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2016

RE:   H.B. No. 1627

      H.D. 2

Honorable Joseph M. Souki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2016

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Consumer Protection & Commerce, to which was referred H.B. No. 1627, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO MEDICAL INVESTIGATIONS BY THE REGULATED INDUSTRIES COMPLAINTS OFFICE,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to support the regulation and enforcement of professional licensing requirements and standards in professions and occupations related to medicine and health care by:

     (1)  Requiring the Regulated Industries Complaints Office to establish a division that specializes in the investigation of medical cases involving professions and occupations regulated by the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs; and

     (2)  Appropriating funds for five full-time equivalent (5.0 FTE) field investigators who specialize in medical cases within the Regulated Industries Complaints Office.

The Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Hawaii Medical Association, and an individual testified in support of this measure.

     Your Committee notes that the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs' Regulated Industries Complaints Office provided testimony requesting that:

     (1)  One of the field investigator positions be replaced with a staff attorney position to assist the current attorneys who handle both licensed and unlicensed activity prosecutions for all of the forty-nine professions that the Regulated Industries Complaints Office oversees; and

     (2)  The requirements that the field investigators be designated for a particular county be removed in order to provide the Regulated Industries Complaints Office the flexibility to assign investigators to neighbor islands based on caseload necessity.

     Therefore, your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Appropriating funds to establish four full-time equivalent (4.0 FTE) field investigators and one full-time equivalent (1.0 FTE) staff attorney who specialize in medical cases within the Regulated Industries Complaints Office;

     (2)  Deleting the requirements that the field investigators be designated for a particular county; and

     (3)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for clarity, consistency, and style.

     Should the Committee on Finance deliberate this measure further, your Committee on Consumer Protection & Commerce respectfully requests that it consider appropriating $562,650 for four full-time equivalent (4.0 FTE) field investigators and one full-time equivalent (1.0 FTE) staff attorney who specialize in medical cases within the Regulated Industries Complaints Office.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Consumer Protection & Commerce that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1627, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it be referred to your Committee on Finance in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1627, H.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Consumer Protection & Commerce,

____________________________

ANGUS L.K. McKELVEY, Chair