STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1121

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 428

       H.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2017

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committees on Higher Education and Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health, to which was referred H.B. No. 428, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PHYSICIAN WORKFORCE ASSESSMENT,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to support physician workforce assessment and planning to recruit and retain physicians in rural and medically underserved areas by allowing the John A. Burns School of Medicine to continue receiving a portion of the physician workforce assessment fee.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, University of Hawai‘i System, Office of the Mayor of the County of Hawai‘i, The Queen's Health Systems, Kaiser Permanente Hawaii, AlohaCare, Hawai‘i Pacific Health, Hawaii Area Health Education Center, Hawai‘i Academy of Family Physicians, Lāna‘i Community Health Center, International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 142 Hawaii, Big Island Toyota, and eleven individuals.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Hawaii Medical Board.

     Your Committees find that Hawaii has a shortage of over five hundred doctors.  In addition to this shortage, Hawaii has the fifth oldest physician workforce in the country.  Your Committees further find that access to quality healthcare requires supporting the recruitment and retention of healthcare professionals, especially in rural, remote, and underserved areas.

     Your Committees recognize the valuable accomplishments that the physician workforce assessment project has assisted with in recent years, including malpractice reform, continuing education, loan repayment to physicians working in areas of need, and advertising of all open positions in Hawaii to graduates in healthcare professions.  Future efforts of the program include state-matched loan relief to new providers in the areas of highest unmet need, promotion of Hawaii careers at mainland conferences, providing bonuses for providers practicing in underserved areas, and the formation of an office of rural training to promote practice in underserved areas.  Your Committees find that the physician workforce assessment fee costs Hawaii physicians $60 every other year and will allow the State to act rapidly when concrete solutions are identified to continue addressing the physician workforce shortage in the State.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Higher Education and Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 428, H.D. 1, and recommend that it pass Second Reading and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

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

________________________________ ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair

________________________________ KAIALI'I KAHELE, Chair