STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1041

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2025

RE: H.B. No. 1379

H.D. 2

Honorable Nadine K. Nakamura

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2025

State of Hawaii

Madame:

Your Committee on Consumer Protection & Commerce, to which was referred H.B. No. 1379, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HEALTH,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to:

(1) Specify the types of foreign medical schools whose graduates may be accepted for licensure;

(2) Specify licensure requirements for foreign medical graduates;

(3) Exempt foreign medical graduates from the residency requirements for medical licensure under certain circumstances; and

(4) Authorize the Hawaii Medical Board to waive the residency requirements under certain circumstances.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Medical Board; Grassroot Institute of Hawaii; Philippine Medical Association of Hawaiʻi; Hawaiʻi Pacific Health; and three individuals. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Hawaii Medical Association.

Your Committee finds that the State has seen an increasing demand for medical professionals, yet some individuals with foreign medical training face barriers to licensure, potentially limiting Hawaii residents' access to qualified physicians. These barriers may prevent the State from fully utilizing skilled practitioners who can provide essential medical services to residents while ensuring that these individuals meet high standards of care. This measure will expand licensure pathways for foreign-trained physicians who meet rigorous competency and professional knowledge requirements, thereby enhancing public health and safety standards.

However, your Committee finds that this measure gives the Hawaii Medical Board unnecessarily broad discretion to determine the comparability of clinical competencies between individuals who have graduated from a program accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education or American Osteopathic Association and those who have not. As an alternative, the Advisory Commission on Additional Licensing Models issued recommendations for changing licensure requirements for physicians who have completed training or practice abroad.

Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Deleting the substantive contents of this measure;

(2) Amending one of the existing pathways for foreign medical graduates to be licensed as physicians by removing the time restriction on when the qualifying examination of the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates should have been passed; and

(3) Establishing an alternative pathway for foreign medical graduates to be licensed as physicians for foreign medical graduates who passed certain examinations, possess an Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates certificate, and have completed two years of post-graduate medical training.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Consumer Protection & Commerce that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1379, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1379, H.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Consumer Protection & Commerce,

____________________________

SCOT Z. MATAYOSHI, Chair