Brief(1)
S.B. 190, as amended by Senate Committee, amends several of the statutes in the Kansas Healing Arts Act to allow, but not require, the Board of Healing Arts to renew licenses for practitioners of the healing arts on other than an annual basis. The bill also deletes the maximum time an individual may hold a postgraduate permit. Currently, a postgraduate permit is only valid for 36 months.
The Senate Committee added a further statute to those amended by S.B. 190 that concerns institutional licenses to practice the healing arts. An institutional license may be issued by the Board of Healing Arts to a person who is a graduate of an accredited school or a school that has been in operation for at least 15 years and whose graduates have been licensed in another state or states with licensing standards similar to Kansas. Currently, an institutional license is valid: (1) only as long as the holder of the license is employed by the Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services, any institution within the Department of Corrections, or pursuant to a contract between the Department of Corrections and a third party and only within the institution to which the holder of the institutional license is assigned or (2) if the license was issued prior to the May 8, 1997, is employed to provide mental health services by a licensed community mental health center or one of its contracted affiliates, or a federal, state, county, or municipal agency or other political subdivision or an educational institution, medical care facility, or psychiatric hospital if the employment is limited to the provision of mental health services and is performed solely on behalf of the employer. The amendments add a third category to those who may practice as the holder of an institutional license--the holder of an institutional license issued prior to May 8, 1997, who is providing mental health services pursuant to a written protocol with a person who is regularly licensed to practice medicine and surgery.
Background
S.B. 190 was introduced at the request of a representative of the Board of Healing Arts who also appeared during the Committee hearing to support the bill. The original bill was supported by the Kansas Medical Society and the Kansas Association of Osteopathic Medicine as well as representatives of other groups who had expressed written support for a change in license renewal to the Board of Healing Arts. The amendment that allows a postgraduate permit to exceed 36 months would allow persons in residency programs that are longer than three years to continue their residency under a postgraduate permit as well as those whose residency is interrupted by illness or other circumstance. The amendment concerning an institutional license was suggested to the Senate Committee by a member of the Committee to allow the continued provision of mental health services by the holder of such license who is no longer practicing in one of the permitted settings.
The fiscal note on S.B. 190 indicates the bill would not have a fiscal effect.
1. *Supplemental notes are prepared by the Legislative Research Department and do not express legislative intent. The supplemental note and fiscal note for this bill may be accessed on the Internet at http://www.ink.org/public/legislative/bill_search.html.