STAND. COM. REP. NO. 369
Honolulu, Hawaii
S.D. 1
President of the Senate
Twenty-Fourth State Legislature
State of Hawaii
Madam:
Your Committees on Education and Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 976 entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO RURAL PRIMARY HEALTHCARE AND WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT IN THE SHORT-TERM,"
beg leave to report as follows:
The purpose of this measure is to:
(1) Stabilize the Family Medicine Residency Program and access to primary care services in central and northern Oahu for the next two years while further program transition is occurring;
(2) Develop the Hawaii Island Family Medicine Rural Training Track to expand the number of family physicians training in the State; and
(3) Appropriate funds for this purpose.
The Department of Health, the University of Hawai‘i System, Hawaii Pacific Health, and Hawaii Medical Service Association submitted testimony in support of this measure.
Your Committees received a fiscal impact statement from the Department of Health that this measure, if passed, would cost the State approximately $660,000 for fiscal year 2007-2008, and the sum of $735,000 for fiscal year 2008-2009. However, the fiscal impact statement submitted did not specify the methodology by which the fiscal impact was calculated. Your Committees note that the sum of $660,000 for fiscal year 2007-2008, and the sum of $735,000 for fiscal year 2008-2009, were originally requested for the purposes of this measure.
Your Committees find that the University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine Family Medicine Residency Program conducts the only civilian family medicine residency program in the State. The program’s mission is to provide well-trained primary care doctors to meet the needs of rural and underserved areas of Hawaii and over eighty per cent of its graduates meet this mission.
The current base Family Medicine Residency Program trains eighteen residents in a program that trains six residents per year for three years. Wahiawa General Hospital supports the salaries of eighteen residents but receives Graduate Medical Education funding from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for only fourteen residents. The salary shortfall adds to the financial strain on Wahiawa General Hospital. To attain a successful model of family medicine training to meet the health workforce needs of the State, the base program on Oahu must be stabilized.
When the Hawaii Island Family Medicine Rural Training Track is fully developed on the island of Hawaii, there will be eight residents living and working on the island that include rotations to other neighbor island sites. The first graduates would enter practice in 2011. The aim is to replicate a rural training track on Kauai once the Hawaii Island model is successfully implemented.
It is your Committees intent to provide funding to stabilize the University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine Department of Family Medicine and Community Health rural primary health care services on Oahu and expand workforce development to the island of Hawaii. Your Committees have amended this measure by:
(1) Deleting the specific amounts appropriated for the purposes of this measure; and
(2) Making technical, nonsubstantive changes for the purposes of clarity, consistency, and style.
As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Education and Health that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 976, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 976, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Education and Health,
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DAVID Y. IGE, Chair |
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NORMAN SAKAMOTO, Chair |
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