Licensure provisions

The House Ways and Means Committee passed a bill that would make changes to licensure provisions for speech-language pathologists, audiologists, occupational therapy professionals, dentists, and other public health occupations.

The bill now moves to the House floor.

HF2175, sponsored by Rep. Jim Abeler (R-Anoka), was approved one week earlier, but Rep. Jim Knoblach (R-St. Cloud), the committee chair, said appropriation language needed to be added for the Board of Nursing and a provision that required dentists to carry medical malpractice insurance needed to be deleted.

Abeler said he wasn’t opposed to the change, although there have been several cases of dental patients receiving implants where aftercare was not properly received causing them to fail. Abeler previously testified that dental malpractice insurance could have given the patients financial resolve.

A Senate companion (SF2351), sponsored by Sen. Sheila Kiscaden (IP-Rochester), awaits action in a Senate committee.