STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2528

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2053

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2018

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 2053 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ATHLETIC TRAINERS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

(1) Make permanent the regulation of athletic trainers; and

(2) Exempt from the regulation of athletic trainers an individual who accompanies an athlete or team of athletes into the State for a temporary period and who does not possess a valid license, registration, or certification from another jurisdiction because that jurisdiction does not regulate athletic trainers.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Professional and Vocational Licensing Division of the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs and Hawaii Athletic Trainers' Association. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Office of the Auditor.

Your Committee finds that athletic trainers are health care professionals who specialize in the prevention, assessment, treatment, and rehabilitation of injuries and illnesses of athletes. Athletic trainers in Hawaii are employed in the State's public schools, some private schools, colleges, universities, hospitals, physicians' offices, clinics, and by the military.

Your Committee further finds that the existing regulatory scheme for athletic trainers is scheduled to sunset on June 30, 2018. A recent report from the Office of the Auditor found that the services an athletic trainer provides may affect the health and safety of athletes, while the proficiencies required by the current regulatory scheme are reasonably necessary to protect athletes under an athletic trainer's care. The Auditor's report also found that the current regulation of athletic trainers does not impose unreasonable restrictions on individuals entering the profession and recommends that the current registration requirement for athletic trainers be extended.

Your Committee additionally finds that this measure makes permanent the regulation of athletic trainers and also adds an exemption from registration for those individuals temporarily accompanying teams to Hawaii for an athletic or sporting event from a jurisdiction that does not regulate athletic trainers. Your Committee notes that California is the only state in the country that does not regulate athletic trainers. However, according to testimony from the Hawaii Athletic Trainers' Association, because California is currently in the process of passing legislation to enact its own registration program, the exemption language in this measure may be unnecessary. Your Committee understands these concerns and finds that an amendment to this measure is necessary.

Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Removing language that would have exempted from the regulation of athletic trainers an individual who accompanies an athlete or team of athletes into the State for a temporary period and who does not possess a valid license, registration, or certification from another jurisdiction because that jurisdiction does not regulate athletic trainers; and

(2) 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. 2053, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2053, 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,

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ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair