Summary of 2008 Legislative Activity
Laura Groshong, WSSCSW Legislative Chair, 3/25/08
(S) = Society supported (O) = Society opposed
- Supervision Change for LICSWs (S) – This bill changes the requirement for approved supervisors for LICSW candidates to 2 years post-licensure clinical experience instead of 5 years. This bill will go into effect on March 25 and will be retroactive to 2003.
- Registered Counselors (S) – These bills went through a total of 12 drafts, primarily to rework the requirements and scope of practice for the new independent registered counselor categories, to be called Certified Counselor and Certified Adviser. The final bill which passed was 2SHB 2674. See the Summary of the reorganization below. This bill will go into effect on July 1, 2009 and the registered counselor category will be eliminated on July 1, 2010.
- Mandatory Reporting (O) – the Department of Health proposed a rule which would have required all licensed health care professionals to report any malpractice or “unethical behavior” on the part of other licensed professionals which they become aware of. The original language was extremely broad, requiring reporting on second hand information, reporting by all associations, and the use of psychological or physical testing, and drug screens, at the discretion of DOH. The rule has been significantly cut back from the broad range it had initially but the final version has not been released. I will keep you posted on the development of this rule.
- Minor Age of Consent Bill (O) – this bill, HB 2552, would have allowed parents to require minor children to go into outpatient or inpatient treatment and allow parents to read their minor child’s mental health records. Current law says that any minor 13 or over can refuse treatment and keep their records confidential if they choose. The approach put parents in an adversarial position with their children, which has developmental complications for adolescents, as well as overlooking the possible family conflicts which may need treatment. This bill died in Appropriations and the issue will be considered further.
- Data-Mining (S) – this bill, HB 2664, was part of the work of the Healthy Washington Coalition. This bill would have prevented information from being sold by physicians or pharmacists to drug companies, a violation of privacy. In spite of HIPAA restrictions on marketing and buying and selling patient information, this practice has been rampant. Recently an article in the New York Times Magazine, "Dr. Drug Rep," described the practice. After passing the Senate, this bill failed to pass in the House after a bitter fight between a coalition of health care advocates/union lobbyists and drug lobbyists. This issue will no doubt be back next year.