Article archive / January 1, 2014
Originally published: . Volume 5, No. 5. Source pages: 5.
At the September 2013 meeting of the Licensed Professional Counselors Board of Examiners, Laura Choate presented an error discovered in the current rules having to do with client confidentiality and client records. The board decided to correct confusing language with an emergency rule, according to the minutes. The emergency rule was published in the October Louisiana Register.
It corrects confusing language in Chapter 21, Section 2105(A)(6)(f).
The section in consideration is “Chapter 21.Code of Conduct for Licensed Professional Counselors,” and “§2105. Confidentiality, Privileged Communication, and Privacy.”
The section reads:
“f. Disclosure or Transfer. Unless exceptions to confidentiality exist, counselors obtain written permission from clients to disclose or transfer records to legitimate third parties. Steps are taken to ensure that receivers of counseling records are sensitive to their confidential nature. If a client who is under the active care of a practitioner licensed by the Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners is diagnosed with a “serious mental illness” and refuses to sign a release of information in order for the counselor to consult with that practitioner, then the counselor must terminate the relationship in accordance with §2103.11 and refer the client to another mental health professional.”
The Emergency Rule was needed to so that licensed professional counselors disclose or transfer client records in accordance with state law, said the explanation accompanying the Emergency Rule.
The new wording is “A. – A.6.e. … f. Disclosure or Transfer. Unless exceptions to confidentiality exist, counselors obtain written permission from clients to disclose or transfer records to legitimate third parties. Steps are taken to ensure that receivers of counseling records are sensitive to their confidential nature.”
“All existing rules or parts thereof are hereby superseded,” noted the regulation, “and amended to the extent that they specifically conflict with these emergency rules. Existing board rules shall be revised and re-codified at such time as the final board rules implementing Act 173 are adopted.”
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.