Originally published: . Volume 10, No. 6. Source pages: 4.
Texas Legislators followed the recommendations of the Texas Sunset Commission to consolidate certain functions of the state's behavioral health boards, with H.B. 1501 passing both chambers sent to the Governor on May 26.
The measure combines individuals from The Board of Examiners of Marriage and Family Therapists, Board of Examiners of Professional Counselors, and Board of Social Worker Examiners with the Board of Examiners of Psychologists under the new umbrella agency, the Texas Behavioral Health Executive Council (BHEC), on September 1, 2020.
The new agency will be a nine- member executive council consisting of one professional member and one public member appointed from each professional board, as well as a public chair of the council appointed by the governor. The announcement from the Sunset Commission noted that each professional board is retained as a governor-appointed board under the overall executive council structure to oversee the substantive regulation of its profession. BHEC is to develop policies and procedures to ensure its rulemaking function focuses solely on creating rules governing administration of licensure, investigation, and sanction procedures, and reviewing rules proposed by each licensing board for anti- competitive impacts, administrative consistency, and good governance concerns
The new agency will not adopt rules relating to standards of practice, ethics, license qualifications, and disciplinary sanctions, unless the rule is proposed by the applicable professional board. Other changes included requiring boards to conduct fingerprint- based criminal background checks of all licensure applicants and licensees, authorizing the boards to check for disciplinary actions in other states, authorizing the psychology board to issue remedial plans to resolve minor complaints, eliminate the authority for the psychology board to administer an oral exam, and adopt Psychology Interjurisdictional Compact. In a related story, the Texas Psychological Association (TPA) dropped a lawsuit against the state psychology board, over a dispute in 2017 when the board adopted new rules removing the supervision requirement for Licensed Psychological Associates. In a memo on the TPA website, the TPA Board of Trustees said the group had spent $76,000 on the law suit and the attorney said that based on preliminary hearings the chance of success was very low.
This article is part of a historical newspaper archive. Read the original issue for its original layout, photographs and graphics.