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Committee adopts technical fix and advances occupational therapy licensure compact bill
Summary
The House Labor and Commerce Committee adopted a sponsor amendment and reported HB 173, which would allow Alaska to participate in an interstate occupational therapy licensure compact intended to ease licensing for out‑of‑state occupational therapists.
The Alaska House Labor and Commerce Committee on May 5 adopted a technical amendment and reported House Bill 173, which would allow Alaska to join the interstate occupational therapy licensure compact.
Multiple occupational therapists and board members testified in favor, saying the compact would reduce licensing barriers for practitioners licensed in other member states and help address a statewide shortage. "We are experiencing a critical shortage of therapists in Alaska. The OT compact would improve our ability to recruit and retain competent and thoroughly vetted OT providers," said Tori Daughtry, a member and secretary of the Alaska Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy Board.
School and clinical therapists from Cordova, the Kenai Peninsula, Anchorage and Eagle River told the committee the compact would reduce wait lists and speed access to care in rural communities. Katie Johnson, vice president of the Alaska Occupational Therapy Association, said the compact would lower licensure obstacles for travel therapists who currently must complete separate state licensing processes.
Representative Neli Jimmy, the bill sponsor, offered a technical amendment (A.1) to correct a drafting error; the committee adopted that amendment and then reported the bill out as amended. Committee discussion included questions about costs tied to participation in the compact commission. Keenan Miller, staff to Representative Jimmy, said 32 states were currently members (plus pending action in the District of Columbia). Glenn Saviors, deputy director with the Division of Corporations, Business and Professional Licensing, told the committee there is no set annual fee for the OT compact at present and the division does not expect additional funds will be required for implementation because the compact should reduce some workload from duplicate applications.
An action to report HB 173 as amended carried with no objection. The committee record shows the PT compact recently went live in Alaska, which committee staff cited as a comparable implementation path.
