STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2498

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2669

       S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2016

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 2669 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO SOCIAL WORKERS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to clarify the supervision requirements for licensure of clinical social workers, including permitting the supervision requirements to be met through face-to-face supervision or via a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act-compliant video conferencing service.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the National Association of Social Workers, Hawai‘i Chapter and sixteen individuals.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Professional and Vocational Licensing Division of the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs.

     Your Committee finds that social workers in Hawaii who are working to complete their licensed clinical social worker requirements must complete three thousand hours of supervised work experience, one hundred hours of which must be by direct face-to-face supervision.  Your Committee further finds that certain social workers, particularly those living on the neighbor islands or in rural areas, and those employed by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, may experience difficulty meeting the direct face-to-face supervision requirement.  This is especially true for social workers in rural areas, as there are a limited number of rural social workers who are qualified to provide supervision for applicants for licensure as clinical social workers.  Your Committee further finds that this measure is intended to reduce barriers for social workers seeking to complete their licensed clinical social worker supervision requirements.

     Your Committee has heard the concern that the deletion of the requirement for individualized supervision for licensed clinical social workers makes it unclear what type of supervision must occur to meet certain supervision requirements.  Your Committee has also heard the concern over what constitutes a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act-compliant video conference service.

     Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Clarifying that at least sixty of the one hundred hours of supervision required for licensure as a clinical social worker:

          (A)  Shall have been individualized supervision; and

          (B)  May have been face-to-face or via a video conference service that is compliant with all federal and state privacy, security, and confidentiality laws, including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996;

     (2)  Clarifying that supervision required for licensure as a clinical social worker included review of assessment, clinical diagnosis, and psychotherapy; and

     (3)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2669, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2669, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

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

________________________________

ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair