Licensing, scope bill targets shortage of mental health workers

By every definition, there is a shortage of mental health professionals in Minnesota. One in four jobs in the field are currently vacant.

Why?

Pick a reason: high demand, heavy workloads, burnout, low salaries, rigorous training and education requirements, and complex licensing and credentialing.

A trio of provisions that aim to address this shortage were passed 92-37 Monday via an extensive bill that considers the scope of practice and licensing for various medical professionals from social workers to dentists and beyond.

Rep. Tina Liebling (DFL-Rochester) sponsors HF4247 that, as amended, now goes to the Senate.

The bill would:

• allow licensed marriage and family therapists from other states to apply and pay for a guest license to practice for five consecutive months in Minnesota;
• repeal a section of law that requires physician assistants to have an agreement with a licensed physician to provide ongoing psychiatric treatment to patients; and
• remove country of origin and language provisions from the list of requirements the Board of Social Work must consider in granting provisional licenses, thereby allowing more and diverse individuals to be eligible.

Under current law, the Board of Social Work may only grant a provisional license to an applicant who is born in a foreign country and communicates in English as a second language, among other requirements.

The bill would preserve mandated practice hours and supervisor practice requirements for provisionally licensed social workers, as well as disciplinary actions afforded to the board.

Other licensure and scope provisions of the bill would:

• require transfer care specialists who transfer dead human bodies to be registered;
• require behavior analysts to be licensed and create a behavior analyst advisory council;
• require veterinary technicians to be licensed;
• strike language so that a specialty dentist holding a general dental license would no longer be restricted to practicing in their designated specialty area;
• require licensed pharmacists to apply to the Board of Pharmacy before relocating or changing the ownership of their business; and
• require third-party logistics providers to report delivery or distribution of any opiate in Minnesota to the Board of Pharmacy.

For the administration of scope and licensing requirements, the bill would appropriate $522,000 to the Department of Health and the boards of psychology, veterinary medicine, dentistry, social work, and marriage and family therapy.

Two of four offered amendments were adopted:

• revise language about the imposition of an annual opiate product registration on manufacturers and
• eliminate language requiring a transfer care specialist to include proof of completion of continuing education requirements, reduce the proposed licensing fee, and reduce the Department of Health appropriation for handling administration of transfer care specialist licensing.