STAND. COM. REP. NO. 617

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2023

RE: H.B. No. 661

H.D. 1

Honorable Scott K. Saiki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2023

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Health & Homelessness, to which was referred H.B. No. 661 entitled:

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

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds for the Hawaii State Loan Repayment Program to provide loan repayment for health care professionals who commit to work in a federally-designated health professional shortage area in the State.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Health, Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa John A. Burns School of Medicine, Hawai‘i State Center for Nursing, Hawaii Substance Abuse Coalition, Hawai‘i Primary Care Association, Hawaii Medical Association, Hawai‘i Pacific Health, Healthcare Association of Hawaii, Kaiser Permanente Hawai‘i, The Queen's Health System, American Physical Therapy Association – Hawaii, and Hawai‘i – American Nurses Association.

Your Committee finds that the John A. Burns School of Medicine currently administers the Hawaii State Loan Repayment Program, which provides student loan repayments for health care professionals who agree to work in a federally-designated health professional shortage area. This program leverages public funds and private donations to access matching federal funds through the State Loan Repayment Program of the National Health Service Corps Branch of the United States Department of Health and Human Services.

Your Committee further finds that the Hawaii State Loan Repayment Program has achieved considerable success in educating, training, and recruiting health care professionals to work in underserved areas. Since September 2012, the loan repayment program has supported seventy-six recipients in exchange for work commitments in underserved geographic practice areas in Hawaii, eighty percent of whom have remained in the State to practice after graduation. The state matching funds appropriated by this measure will enable the John A. Burns School of Medicine to draw down as much federal money as possible and allow the program to provide loan repayment to more health care professionals, which will help in the ongoing efforts to alleviate the health care professional shortages in the State.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Changing the appropriation to an unspecified amount;

(2) Changing the effective date to June 30, 3000, to encourage further discussion; and

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

Your Committee respectfully requests your Committee on Finance, should it deliberate on this measure, to consider an appropriation amount of $1,500,000.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health & Homelessness that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 661, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 661, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Finance.

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

____________________________

DELLA AU BELATTI, Chair