STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1083-22

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2022

RE: S.B. No. 2274

S.D. 2

H.D. 1

Honorable Scott K. Saiki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2022

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Health, Human Services, & Homelessness, to which was referred S.B. No. 2274, S.D. 2, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE CENTER FOR NURSING,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to:

(1) Require all nurses to respond to the Center for Nursing Workforce Supply Survey in conjunction with each license renewal, but does not penalize for failure to do so; and

(2) Increase the additional Center for Nursing fee from $40 per licensing biennium to $60 per licensing biennium.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa Nancy Atmospera-Walch School of Nursing, Hawai‘i State Center for Nursing, Hawai‘i-American Nurses Association, The Queen's Health Systems, Kaiser Permanente Hawai‘i, and one individual. Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from one individual. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Board of Nursing.

Your Committee finds that the Hawaii State Center for Nursing was established in 2003, to be funded through a biennial $40 fee assessed per individual nurse licensee. The fee has not been adjusted since that time and a modest increase is now needed to help the Center sustain the staffing needed to maintain its programs and meet its mandates.

Your Committee also finds that the Center for Nursing is responsible for collecting and analyzing data and researching, preparing, and disseminating written reports and recommendations on a wide variety of issues related to the State's nursing workforce, including current and future workforce status and trends, best practices and quality outcomes, and recruiting and retention of nurses. Your Committee further finds that challenges to securing adequate responses to the Workforce Supply Survey have severely limited the Center's ability to continue to inform policy makers, health care leaders, and others on the availability and characteristics of the nursing workforce in the State. Requiring responses to this survey will improve the Center's ability to aggregate nursing workforce data and provide more accurate information on these issues.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Deleting most of the preamble;

(2) Changing the effective date to July 1, 2060, to encourage further discussion; and

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

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health, Human Services, & Homelessness that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2274, S.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2274, S.D. 2, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Consumer Protection & Commerce.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Health, Human Services, & Homelessness,

____________________________

RYAN I. YAMANE, Chair