STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1121-20

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2020

RE: S.B. No. 2983

S.D. 1

H.D. 1

Honorable Scott K. Saiki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirtieth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2020

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Health and Lower & Higher Education, to which was referred S.B. No. 2983, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO LOAN REPAYMENT FOR HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONALS,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds to the Department of Health to fund the Health Care Provider Loan Repayment Program administered by the University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Health, Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, University of Hawaii, Hawaii State Center for Nursing, Office of the Mayor of the County of Hawaii, Lanai Community Health Center, Hawaii State Rural Health Association, Hawaii Medical Association, Hawaii – American Nurses Association, Healthcare Association of Hawaii, Hilo Medical Center Foundation, Hawaii Primary Care Association, Hawaii Pacific Health, Hawaii Family Health, The Queen's Health Systems, Hawaii Psychological Association, Kaiser Permanente Hawaii, and numerous individuals.

Your Committees find that Hawaii is experiencing a shortage of approximately eight hundred doctors, as well as many other types of primary care and behavioral health care workers. This shortage is most acute for those on neighbor islands and in rural areas. Your Committees further find that one of the fastest and least expensive methods for recruiting health care professionals is through a loan repayment program. Hawaii's State Loan Repayment Program, known as the Health Care Provider Loan Repayment Program, is administered through the John A. Burns School of Medicine and provides loan repayment benefits for health care professionals in exchange for the commitment to serve in rural or medically underserved communities. This measure continues the Health Care Provider Loan Repayment Program, which will help reduce the health care professional shortages in those areas.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Clarifying that the name of the loan repayment program is the Health Care Provider Loan Repayment Program;

(2) Changing its effective date to July 1, 3000, to encourage further discussion; and

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

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Health and Lower & Higher Education that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2983, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2983, S.D. 1, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Finance.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Health and Lower & Higher Education,

____________________________ JUSTIN H. WOODSON, Chair

____________________________ JOHN M. MIZUNO, Chair