BY MEGAN HART

The Senate has approved a bill creating a new category of addiction counselor, after adding an amendment to prevent privatization of Osawatomie State Hospital.

Senate Bill 449 would create the designation of master’s addiction counselors, who could counsel people with substance abuse disorders but would have to work under supervision to diagnose substance use disorders. They could be supervised by a licensed clinical addiction counselor, a psychologist or a person licensed to practice medicine or provide mental health services.

After Sept. 1, Kansans who hadn’t obtained a license as a master’s addiction counselor wouldn’t be allowed to practice addiction counseling. A licensee would have to have at least a master’s degree and continuing education related to addiction issues. The bill wouldn’t apply to work by religious figures, unless they represented themselves as licensed to provide counseling.

Sen. Caryn Tyson, a Parker Republican, amended the bill to prevent privatization of Osawatomie State Hospital. Speculation has swirled that the hospital, one of two that treats Kansans with severe or persistent mental illness, could be privatized after the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services ended Medicare payments to the hospital due to safety concerns.

Tyson quoted astronaut Alan Shepard’s observation that it didn’t make him feel particularly secure that every part of the rocket he flew in was built by “the lowest bidder on a government contract.”

“Our state hospital would be run by the lowest bidder,” she said.

‘Updates and standardizes’

Under SB 449, licensed professional counselors and marriage and family therapists who want to supervise people completing their postgraduate work would have to complete coursework on supervision skills and gain approval from the state Behavioral Sciences Regulatory Board as clinical supervisors.

The bill also would standardize the reasons a license wouldn’t be renewed for counselors, licensed master’s social workers, marriage and family therapists, addiction counselors, psychologists and master’s level psychologists.

It also would allow, but not require, the regulatory board to do fingerprinting and run background checks on applicants, and require a two-thirds vote by the board to reinstate someone’s license after a felony conviction.

Sen. Michael O’Donnell, a Wichita Republican, said the bill “updates and standardizes” the board. It also establishes reciprocity so that professionals who are licensed in another state can practice if they move to Kansas, he said.

In other action

The Senate passed several other health-related bills on voice votes:

• A substitute for Senate Bill 103 would address cost limits for prescription drugs. Pharmacy benefit managers use “maximum allowable cost” lists to limit how much insurance companies have to reimburse pharmacists for generic drugs.
• Senate Bill 407 would reinstate the process for reviewing if a person can be released from the state’s sexually violent predator program. A bill last year inadvertently dropped language about the program’s release phases.
• Senate Bill 402 would allow medical providers to receive eight hours of continuing education credit for providing charitable care. Dentists could earn up to six hours of continuing education credits. It also would exempt community mental health centers from liability while providing charitable care. Other medical providers already are exempt.

Megan Hart is a reporter for KHI News Service in Topeka, a partner in the Heartland Health Monitor team. You can reach her on Twitter @meganhartMC