STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1021

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 916

       H.D. 1

       S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2017

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committees on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health and Higher Education, to which was referred H.B. No. 916, H.D. 1, entitled:

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

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to address the shortage of primary healthcare providers in Hawaii by appropriating funds to the loan repayment program administered through the John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Health, Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, Hawai‘i Psychological Association, University of Hawai‘i System, Hawai‘i Academy of Family Physicians, Healthcare Association of Hawaii, Hawaii Association of Professional Nurses, Lāna‘i Community Health Center, Hawai‘i Pacific Health, East Hawaii Region of Hawaii Health Systems Corporation, The Queen's Health Systems, Big Island Toyota, International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 142 Hawaii, AlohaCare, and twelve individuals.

     Your Committees find that Hawaii is facing a shortage of over five hundred doctors, and that this shortage threatens the health of Hawaii residents and cumulatively affects the State's healthcare costs.  Your Committees further find that access to care in rural and underserved areas of Hawaii is especially concerning, as these areas have been the most significantly affected by the shortage of primary and behavioral healthcare providers.

     Your Committees recognize the need for the State to attract healthcare professionals to practice in Hawaii and find that loan repayment assistance is one of the fastest and least expensive methods to recruit providers.  Currently, the John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawaii at Manoa administers the only loan repayment program available in the State to healthcare professionals and has helped healthcare professionals who serve in communities including Waianae, Hilo, and Wailuku.  Your Committees note testimony submitted by the University of Hawai‘i System indicating that because federal funding for the program requires a local dollar-for-dollar match, without financial support from the State the program will not be able to reapply for the federal grant and the loan repayment program will end.

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

     (1)  Inserting language to clarify that the loan repayment program referred to is the Hawaii Rural Health Care Provider Loan Repayment Program and deleting the reference to psychologists, social workers, licensed professional counselors, and marriage and family therapists benefitting from the program because those professions are not included in section 309H-3, Hawaii Revised Statutes, which establishes the Hawaii Rural Health Care Provider Loan Repayment Program; and

     (2)  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 Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health and Higher Education that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 916, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 916, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

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

________________________________ KAIALI'I KAHELE, Chair

________________________________ ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair