Bill Text: HI HB1089 | 2019 | Regular Session | Amended

Hawaii House Bill 1089 (Prior Session Legislation)

Bill Title: Relating To Medical Education.

Spectrum: Strong Partisan Bill (Democrat 13-1)

Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2019-03-05 - Referred to CPH, WAM. [HB1089 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2019-HB1089-Amended.html

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.B. NO.	1089
THIRTIETH LEGISLATURE, 2019		H.D. 1
STATE OF HAWAII

A BILL FOR AN ACT

RELATING TO MEDICAL EDUCATION.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that according to a November 2016 report by the University of Hawaii, Hawaii loses on average fifty physicians per year due to retirement. It is estimated that there will be a shortage of three to seven hundred physicians by 2020. Within ten years, approximately fifty-two per cent of physicians in the State will be sixty-five years of age or older, which is a common age for retirement. It is imperative that the State attempt to reduce this physician shortfall.

During the 2016-2017 academic year, the John A. Burns school of medicine enrolled a total of two hundred eighty students. Of the approximately two thousand three hundred individuals who applied, only seventy � which is the largest class the school can accommodate without adding faculty or expanding facilities � were accepted into the first-year class.

The purpose of this Act is to require the department of health to conduct a study to develop a pilot program under which residents of Hawaii may pursue a doctor of medicine degree with state-provided financial support in exchange for a commitment to practice medicine in Hawaii after they graduate.

SECTION 2. (a) The department of health shall conduct a study regarding the establishment of a pilot program under which residents of Hawaii may pursue a doctor of medicine degree with state-provided financial support in exchange for a commitment to practice medicine in Hawaii after they graduate.

(b) The study shall consider the following:

(1) What qualifications, including those pertaining to legal residence and academic achievement, individuals shall meet to be eligible to participate in the pilot program; provided that eligibility criteria shall be structured to encourage individuals throughout Hawaii, particularly rural and underserved areas, to apply to and participate in the pilot program;

(2) The amount of financial support to be provided by the State to individuals participating in the pilot program and how such amounts shall be determined;

(3) The purposes for which the financial support provided in paragraph (2) may be used; provided that tuition and room and board shall be allowable expenses;

(4) The required length and any other conditions of an individual's commitment to practice medicine in the State after graduation; provided that individuals shall be strongly encouraged to practice medicine in their home communities in Hawaii;

(5) The penalties to be imposed on or reimbursement of financial support to be required of an individual who fails to:

(A) Complete the doctor of medicine degree at an accredited college of medicine; or

(B) Meet the required commitment to practice medicine in Hawaii after graduation; and

(6) The feasibility of subsidizing study at foreign colleges of medicine, such as those located in the Philippines, including any savings the State might recover through such an endeavor.

SECTION 3. The department of health shall submit a report of its findings and recommendations, including any proposed legislation, to the legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the regular session of 2020.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2050.

Report Title:

Department of Health; Physician Shortage; Study

Description:

Directs the DOH to perform a study to develop a pilot program to provide state-provided financial support to individuals pursuing a doctor of medicine degree in exchange for a commitment to practice medicine in Hawaii after they graduate. (HB1089 HD1)

The summary description of legislation appearing on this page is for informational purposes only and is not legislation or evidence of legislative intent.