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Bill to merge four low-volume licensing boards draws broad support from providers and department
Summary
House Bill 438 would consolidate boards for athletic trainers, physical therapists, occupational therapists and speech-language pathologists/audiologists into a single board to reduce meetings, increase capacity and lower per-license costs; stakeholders largely supported the compromise makeup and transition plan.
Representative Ed Butchery introduced House Bill 438, which would create a new Board of Physical Rehabilitative and Developmental Health Care Professionals inside the Department of Labor and Industry and shift licensure and disciplinary oversight for athletic trainers, physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists and audiologists into that single board.
Sarah Swanson, commissioner of the Department of Labor and Industry, described the change as an efficiency move to consolidate several low-volume boards that together handled only five complaints last year but required 20 separate board members and multiple meetings. "Consolidating four of our smaller boards nd creating a single board of about 12 members will save meeting costs, reduce staff workload and give the board more capacity to handle complex cases," Swanson told the committee.
Stakeholders from each profession testified in support after an 18-month negotiation process that the commissioner and sponsor described. Athletic trainers, physical therapists and speech/hearing advocates said they had worked to preserve seat representation and specialty protections. Riley Ungaretti, president of the Montana Athletic Trainers Association, said the negotiated board composition preserved access to expertise for traditional and nontraditional athletic-trainer practice settings.
The bill sets a delayed effective date (January 1, 2026) to allow rulemaking and transition, and the department said cash balances of the dissolved boards will carry into the new board's appropriation subject to the legislature's cap on carryover. Committee members asked about screening panels and whether the new board would have the right mix of expertise for disciplinary review; Swanson said the bill's membership rules were designed so screening panels would include discipline-specific members when needed.
Ending: The committee advanced the bill; proponents credited the department and stakeholders for collaborative rule-writing and compromise on board composition. Supporters said consolidation should reduce administrative costs while keeping safeguards for discipline and specialty practice.
