Brief (1)
SB 176 would expand the list of professional services for which licensed practitioners may organize themselves in professional corporations. The bill would specifically add clinical professional counselor, clinical marriage and family therapist, clinical psychotherapist, and geologist to the list.
Background
The Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing on SB 176, at which time representatives of the Board of Technical Professions, the Mental Health Credentialing Coalition and individual practitioners testified in favor of the bill. While the underlying bill added licensed professional counselors to the authorized list, the Senate Committee amended the bill to include geologists, licensed clinical marriage and family therapists, and licensed clinical psychotherapists at the request of the Board of Technical Professions and the Mental Health Credentialing Coalition. The Senate Committee also added a catch-all provision for any other profession licensed by a state regulatory board.
The Senate Committee of the Whole amended the bill to eliminate the list of professional services for which licensed practitioners may organize themselves in professional corporations and instead added a provision providing this authority to any person licensed as a professional by a regulating board in Kansas.
The House Taxation Committee held a hearing on SB 176, at which time a variety of conferees opposed the Senate Committee of the Whole amendments, including representatives of the Kansas Secretary of State, Foulston & Siefkin L.L.P., and the Kansas Board of Healing Arts. Conferees expressed concern over the unintended consequences of eliminating the list of professionals expressly authorized to organize in professional corporations. The House Committee amended the bill to return to the Senate Commerce Committee version minus the catch-all provision for any other profession licensed by a state regulatory board.
The Division of the Budget reports that passage of SB 176 would have no fiscal or administrative cost.
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/fulltext.cgi