Alabama Psychology
Licensing Bill News
We have retained Roger
Bates of Hand Arendall as our legal counsel and consultant in pursuing passage
of our licensing bill, SB250, in the 2013 legislature, which convened February
5. On March 6, our bill was voted unanimously out of the Senate health
Committee. Sponsorship by Senator Cam Ward.
Summary of SB250:
- This bill would provide further
for the membership of the Board of Examiners in Psychology.
- This bill would provide further
for renewal and licensing fees of psychologists and psychological
technicians.
- This bill would provide further
for continuing education, licensing mobility, and temporary and emergency
disaster licensing.
- This bill would require legal
citizenship or legal presence in the country of licensees.
- This bill would increase the
fines for unauthorized practice of psychology.
- This bill would provide civil
remedies for enjoining violations of the licensing act.
- This bill would provide for a
background check fee.
- This bill would provide further
for complaints of licensees.
- This bill would also provide
further for hearings of alleged violations.
For more information on
background,please go to the Members only Forum by logging in to the
website.
To follow the progress
of this bill, log on through Members Log on and go to the Forum for Practice
Act.
Medicaid Action Alert was
effective!We are recognized as primary care mental
health providers for many people in the state of Alabama. Psychiatrists
are the specialists in this area.
The actual
request made by the
Medicaid Commissioner in December, 2009
The letter the association received from the Medicaid
Agency in March, 2010, regarding the 20% cuts to psychologists for certain
services. Discussions with the Medicaid agency were successful in
preventing the cuts to licensed psychologists. We continue to meet with
Medicaid staff to improve relationships and better serve the Alabama citizens
on Medicaid.
The Alabama legislature
will convene in early February. While the legislators are home, or even
when they are in Montgomery, you can contact them to Introduce yourself, tell
them what a psychologist is, and consider becoming a key contact, someone that
your legislator can turn to for questions about issues relevant to mental
health. It is time to get involved! It is a lot easier than you
realize.
To find out who your
senator and representative are in the Alabama Legislature, go to the Alabama legislature's site.
This
is really cool!If you are a member of the American Psychological Association, and
the APA Practice Organization, you can access legislation and regulations in
all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Congress through a unique service
by going to the APA Practice Organization (APAPO) website pages at www.apapractice.org
The
APAPO and State Net provide electronic access to state legislation and
regulations on issues relevant to practitioners.
These reports provide a
look at legislation and regulations in a variety of issue areas,
including: licensure and scope of practice, reimbursement, hospital
practice, mental health parity, prescriptive authority, healthcare reform, and
more.