STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2429

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2882

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2022

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 2882 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO COMMUNITY HEALTH WORKERS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to establish the Community Health Worker Certification Program within the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawai‘i Primary Care Association and three individuals. Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from Kula No Nā Po‘e Hawai‘i o Papakōlea. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Budget and Finance, Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Department of Health, University of Hawai‘i System, Hawaii Home Birth Collective LLC, Hawai‘i Public Health Institute, Hawaii Medical Service Association, Hawaii Substance Abuse Coalition, Ohana Pacific Health, and Pacific Birth Collective.

Your Committee finds that community health workers provide critical services by connecting rural and underprivileged communities throughout the State with health care resources. However, because the community health workers are not licensed by the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, in accordance with existing law, their services are not reimbursable by private or public insurance. This has greatly diminished the services that they can provide, particularly in areas that are experiencing a critical lack of health care professionals to provide basic services. Establishing a certification program for community health workers will improve the quality of care and access to health care for residents throughout the State.

Your Committee acknowledges the testimony of the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, which requested additions to the measure that would facilitate the implementation of the Community Health Worker Certification Program.

Therefore, your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Authorizing the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs to assess fees for certificate applications and renewals, which shall be maintained in a separate account within the compliance resolution fund;

(2) Adding separate provisions regarding the renewal of certificates and grounds for refusal to renew, reinstate, or restore a certificate and for denial, revocation, suspension, or condition of a certificate;

(3) Adding an appropriation for funds to administer the Community Health Worker Certification Program;

(4) Inserting an effective date of January 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion; and

(5) 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 Health that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2882, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2882, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committees on Commerce and Consumer Protection and Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Health,

________________________________

JARRETT KEOHOKALOLE, Chair