Committee advances bill to ease supervision for Idaho prescribing psychologists

The Idaho Senate Health and Welfare Committee voted to send Senate Bill 1088 to the Senate floor with a due‑pass recommendation after testimony from clinicians, educators and industry representatives.

Senator Mark Harris, sponsor of the bill, told the committee the measure “improves and streamlines the practice of psychology in the state of Idaho by removing unnecessary barriers and deleting obsolete redundant language and making some other changes.” He said the bill changes supervision for provisional prescribing psychologists from a physician‑only supervisory agreement to a broader collaborative agreement with experienced prescribers, including nurse practitioners, pharmacists and prescribing psychologists.

The change is intended to address what Harris and witnesses described as a bottleneck: Idaho has had eight prescribing psychologists since the authorizing law took effect about eight…