The Auditor
State of Hawai‘i

A Comparative Study of the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs Professional and Vocational Licenses

Report No. 05-14
December 2005

 

Foreword

Introduction

License Summaries

Accountant, Certified Public

Acupuncture

Chiropractor

Contractor

Electrician, Journeyman

Electrician, Supervising

Optometrist

Osteopathic Physician

Pharmacist

Pharmacy

Physician

Physician Assistant

Plumber, Journeyman

Plumber, Master

Podiatrist

Veterinarian

 

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND

The 2005 Legislature adopted House Concurrent Resolution No. 156 (H.C.R. No. 156) requesting the Auditor to “conduct a comparative analysis of professional and vocational regulation in other states and in Hawai‘i, including educational, testing, experience, or other requirements, and to determine whether any such requirements are necessary to protect health, safety, and welfare of consumers.” The resolution expressed concern that some regulatory programs may “unjustifiably increase the costs of goods and services to consumers and unreasonably restrict entry into professions and vocations by all qualified persons.” 

H.C.R. No. 156 requests the auditor to conduct the study in two parts, paralleling the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs’ (DCCA’s) broad categorization of the regulated professions.  Part 1 of the study will report on the professions and vocations under twenty-five boards and commissions twenty days prior to the 2006 session. Part 2 will focus on the twenty licensing programs prior to the 2007 session.

The DCCA has administrative responsibility for forty-five different classifications of professions and vocations.  The professions and vocations are regulated by twenty-five professional and vocational licensing boards and commissions and twenty licensing programs (those without a board or commission).  Within DCCA, the Professional and Vocational Licensing Division provides administrative support, including licensing functions, for over one hundred different licenses (approximately seventy-five under boards and commissions and approximately thirty under programs). DCCA’s Regulated Industries Complaints Office (RICO) is responsible for the enforcement of the state’s licensing laws for these boards and programs.

SCOPE AND METHODOLOGY

Part 1 will be published in two sections. Obsolete licenses, specialty licenses, licenses that grant a limited or temporary right to practice, branch location licenses, registrations, and licenses that do not impact the health, safety, or welfare of consumers are not be included in this study. The licenses excluded are not the board’s primary licenses and account for less than 2 percent of licensees.

We compiled general license requirements in fifty states and compared Hawaii’s requirements to that of the other states. Rather than undertaking a detailed cataloging of every license requirement, we took an overview of each state’s prelicense and license retention requirements.  The requirements were generally categorized in terms of the following components:

Education – The education component was generally defined as training obtained in a classroom setting.  In the various professions and vocations, education ranged from specialized vocational lessons to college and post-graduate training.

Experience – The experience component was generally defined as practical or other types of training or experience outside of a classroom setting.  Experience included apprenticeships and clinical observations and training. When experience was an integral part of the education requirement, they were combined.

Examination – This category included all tests required by each state for an applicant to obtain a license.  Tests that in our analysis were considered more informational or procedural in nature were not included.

Fees – All fees that a board collected for the processing and issuance of a license, certificate, or registration, were presented.  Fees that were necessary for the licensing process but not directly collected by a board were not included.  Testing fees paid to a third party is an example of fees not included.  Fees collected for the first renewal after the initial issuing of a license and included in the initial fee were counted in this study on an annualized basis. We also included fees for special funds.

Continuing Education – This category includes education that each licensing board or commission required for the renewal of a license.

Reciprocity – Loosely defined, reciprocity in the licensing context is the mutual exchange of license privileges between states.  We noted that each state defined reciprocity in its own manner.  Anecdotally, we noted that very few states practiced or recognized an unrestricted or unconditional reciprocity in the recognition of other states’ licenses.  Most states would recognize a partial academic, experiential, or examination accomplishment of an out-of-state applicant.  This would result in the state waiving part of its licensing requirement. 

This study did not delve into each state’s reciprocity policy.  States recognizing reciprocity in their literature and documents were credited with having reciprocity.  States that either openly stated that they did not recognize reciprocity or were silent about the issue were not credited in the study.

Other requirements unique to a license – This includes significant license requirements that do not fit into the categories above.

Within each category, the states were assigned a rank, then, giving each category equal weight, an average rank was achieved. In comparing the states, rank was based on whether a requirement in one state would be more difficult for an applicant or licensee than in another state. For example, states with the highest license fees or the most continuing education hours would be ranked in the first quintile. Comparisons are made only within a license and not between licenses.

For each state, an average of the scores for each category was compiled and an overall rank was assigned to the state.  The overall rank is not an average of the scores from each category of the license.

Data were gathered primarily from state agencies’ Web pages, specifically application forms and instructions, FAQs, and other informational pages. When necessary, we also consulted administrative rules and statutes and telephoned the agency. When available, we referred to websites and publications of professional organizations that cataloged state license requirements. Using these resources, we made every attempt to assure the accuracy of the data but recognize that errors are possible. License requirements are not static, and we did encounter pending changes in requirements. We used data that we believe will be in effect on publication of this report.

The pages that follow include a table with summaries of all the licenses. For each license, a more detailed summary, set of charts, and a table are provided. The tables contain the data collected; the charts provide a graphical representation of this data. Use the links in the left border to navigate between licenses and the links at the top to navigate the charts and table within a license. 

SUMMARY

As this is only the first part of the study, we will reserve any general conclusions until its completion. For the licenses in this part of the study, the overall quintile ranks are as follows:

License Rank
Certified Public Accountant 3
Acupuncture 4
Chiropractor  4

Contractor

1
Electrician, Journeyman 1
Electrician, Supervising  1
Optometrist   3
Osteopathic Physician  2
Pharmacist   4
Pharmacy    2
Physician   2
Physician Assistant      2
Plumber, Journeyman      1
Plumber, Master    1
Podiatrist   4
Veterinarian 2