STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3766

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.C.R. No. 2

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2022

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Health and Commerce and Consumer Protection, to which was referred S.C.R. No. 2 entitled:

"SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION REQUESTING THE AUDITOR TO CONDUCT A SUNRISE REVIEW OF THE CERTIFICATION AND REGULATION OF COMMUNITY HEALTH WORKERS,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to request the Auditor to conduct a sunrise review of the certification and regulation of community health workers.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Department of Health, Hawai‘i Public Health Institute, Hawai‘i Primary Care Association, and two individuals. Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Office of the Auditor and Hawai‘i Community Health Worker Association.

Your Committees find that persons who hold themselves out as community health workers are not presently required to be licensed, certified, registered, or otherwise regulated by the State. Your Committees further find that increasing the number of community health workers and standardizing their qualifications and required training will help rural communities receive access to adequate, timely, and life-saving health care services. Furthermore, establishing certification for community health workers may also enable their services to be reimbursable under private and public health insurance plans.

Your Committees find that S.B. No. 2882, introduced during the Regular Session of 2022, proposes the certification and regulation of community health workers. Section 26H-6, Hawaii Revised Statutes, requires new measures subjecting unregulated professions and vocations to licensing or other regulatory controls to be referred to the Auditor for analysis. This measure requests the Auditor to analyze the proposed certification and regulation of community health workers in accordance with section 26H-6, Hawaii Revised Statutes.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Identifying Senate Bill No. 2882, Regular Session of 2022, as the measure that would subject community health workers to licensing or other regulatory controls for the Auditor to analyze;

(2) Requesting the Auditor to, in preparing the sunrise review of the certification and regulation of community health workers, solicit and incorporate input from current community health workers in the State and consider the potential cost burdens to community health workers resulting from the certification and regulation of community health workers; and

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

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Health and Commerce and Consumer Protection that are attached to this report, your Committees concur with the intent and purpose of S.C.R. No. 2, as amended herein, and recommend its adoption in the form attached hereto as S.C.R. No. 2, S.D. 1.

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

________________________________ ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair

________________________________ JARRETT KEOHOKALOLE, Chair