The Committee on Health Services voted to defer two proposed administrative regulations that would rename and change qualifications for mental health associates to behavioral health associates.

The regulations — identified in committee discussion as 907 KAR 001:044 and 907 KAR 015:005 — were postponed after committee members and providers raised concerns that new coursework and qualification requirements could reduce access to care in rural areas. Chairwoman Mosher presided over the motion to defer; the motions were seconded and approved by voice vote.

Committee members said the Department for Medicaid Services filed the regulations to expand the existing mental health associate role into a behavioral health associate (BHA) provider type that Medicaid would allow in roughly 2,000 additional outpatient settings, including behavioral health multi-specialty groups and behavioral health services organizations. Jonathan Scott, regulation coordinator for the Department for Medicaid Services, told the committee the proposal would move individuals toward licensure by requiring enrollment in graduate programs or other steps linking them to licensure boards, and would create some exceptions for narcotic treatment centers.

Mountain Comprehensive Care and other community mental health centers raised concerns at the administrative-regulations level that the proposed qualifications — which committee discussion described as additional college or graduate coursework in many cases — would create an access-to-care problem in rural communities where many frontline staff would not meet the new education requirements. Scott said the cabinet and agency staff worked with 13 CMHC divisions and multiple licensing boards and produced amended-after-comments drafts, but that the administrative-regulations subcommittee still found the proposals deficient and did not provide a specific written reason for the deficiency.

Committee members pressed for additional detail on the number of affected workers. Scott said outreach to CMHCs suggested the group impacted could be "as high as about 1,600, 1,700," and noted testimony indicating Mountain Comprehensive Care alone reported 1,600 individuals in a related category while also reporting roughly 400 current MHAs (mental-health associates). Scott said exact counts are unclear because MHAs are not currently tracked by a licensing board.

Scott described steps the cabinet already proposed to ease the transition, including delaying the effective date (committee discussion referenced pushing effective dates to 2031), extended timeframes for people in certain programs, and longer transition windows for doctoral candidates. Committee members said they wanted more time for follow-up with providers and licensing boards and to review the amended drafts.

Following the discussion Chairwoman Mosher called for motions to defer both regulations. The committee voted by voice to defer 907 KAR 001:044 and to defer 907 KAR 015:005; no roll-call tallies were recorded in the transcript.

The committee chair said the Senate does not meet until early February and that the additional time would allow more outreach; she scheduled follow-up work before the committee takes further action.