Texas Behavioral Health Executive Council requires CE Broker accounts for license renewals

The Texas Behavioral Health Executive Council (BHEC) and CE Broker told about 3,500 webinar registrants on the rollout and use of CE Broker, an online continuing-education (CE) management platform that BHEC will require for license renewals. Daryl Spinks, executive director for the council, said licensees "are going to be required to use a CE broker to upload and manage your continuing education for BHEC." The council and CE Broker said accounts may be created now and that, beginning Jan. 1, licensees will not be able to renew without an account and required CE uploaded.

Why it matters: BHEC regulates roughly 92,000 licenses and cited both that growth and recent legislation as reasons for moving to an online CE-management system. Spinks said Senate Bill 912, passed in the last legislative session, now mandates an online CE management system for state agencies; BHEC had already solicited bids, and CE Broker won the contract. The agency and vendor said the change is intended to improve public protection by making CE compliance easier to track and by shifting audits to after renewals.

CE Broker and account options: CE Broker (a product line of Propellus) provides a free basic account that BHEC requires; paid tiers (Professional, Concierge) add transcript tools and personalized support, and a Pro Plus catalog subscription is available for some professions. Jason Grubb of CE Broker described the free account as meeting BHEC's required baseline and said paid options are optional conveniences. He said the platform supports both self-reported submissions and provider-reported submissions; providers can submit individual completions or bulk rosters and may set up backend connections to report automatically.

Upload, audits and timing: BHEC and CE Broker stressed that uploading evidence will soon be required prior to renewal. Robert Romig, deputy executive director for the council, said the agency will move from pre‑renewal audits (which could block renewal while staff reviewed documentation) to post‑renewal audits. Spinks explained the practical effect: when users attempt to renew, the system will show whether required CE has been entered and documented; renewals will be blocked if CE evidence is missing. Romig said, "Yes. It truly is 0 cost" for the basic account and that agency rules prohibit the agency from paying for the service.

Key rules and exceptions explained on the webinar: presenters walked through common reporting scenarios and limits found in BHEC rules. Items emphasized during Q&A and the demo included: - Carryover: BHEC allows up to 10 hours to carry forward; because CE Broker is new to BHEC, presenters advised licensees who want to apply prior-cycle hours to the initial CE Broker cycle to adjust completion dates so those hours fall into the current cycle and be prepared for post‑renewal audit verification. Daryl Spinks and Jason Grubb explained this is a temporary workaround until historical cycles exist in CE Broker. - Exemptions: CE Broker supports exemption requests (for example, active-duty military waivers); such exemption submissions route to the board and must be approved by BHEC before they change the transcript or requirements. - Special reporting categories: presentation, authorship, supervision, self‑study and other non-standard CE types have maximums (demo examples showed the platform enforcing board limits, e.g., a self‑study capped at 1 hour). The vendor’s demo required appropriate attestation questions and, for many reporting types, an uploaded document.

Multiple licenses and provider reporting: CE Broker allows multiple license types under a single user account; licensees must select which license they are reporting for. Grubb said that if a course completion is reported by an education provider and that course maps to multiple licenses, CE Broker may automatically map the completion to those licenses. If a licensee self‑reports a course that a provider later reports, the system generally will reject a provider submission that duplicates an existing self submission; however, presenters warned the duplicate-detection logic is asymmetric: if a provider posts first and a licensee then self‑reports, duplicates can sometimes still appear and should be cleaned up by the licensee.

Provider list and course search: CE Broker operates a marketplace where providers can list courses (some hosted on CE Broker, some linking to provider sites). Grubb said many providers report directly into CE Broker, but not every provider will be publicly listed; some organizations (for example, hospital systems offering CE only to employees) report but do not list courses publicly. The vendor and council reminded licensees that listing or reporting into CE Broker does not constitute automatic board approval — BHEC remains responsible for applying board rules in audits.

Support, access and logistics: CE Broker offers a free mobile app and an in-house U.S.-based support team (bilingual English/Spanish) available Monday–Friday, 7 a.m.–7 p.m. Central. The webinar will be recorded and posted to CE Broker's YouTube channel; the presenters also announced two additional live webinars (Oct. 29 and Dec. 10) and that the slide deck would be shared.

Quotes from the webinar included: "This is being live streamed on CE Broker's YouTube page," Grubb said during the demo; Robert Romig told attendees, "The data that we have to share with CE Broker in order to set all the system up ... is ours by the agreement." Spinks summarized the policy shift: "We're now going to switch to post renewal audit."

What licensees should do next: presenters urged licensees to create a CE Broker account now, add all relevant licenses to a single account, begin uploading CE evidence, and use CE Broker’s support or BHEC staff for questions about platform use versus board-rule interpretation. BHEC staff said they will not preapprove CE in advance and that licensees should follow the board’s rules when deciding what to report.

Ending note: presenters said the platform is intended to increase transparency and speed renewal processing; BHEC and CE Broker will host additional webinars and provide written resources. The council and vendor encouraged licensees to contact CE Broker support for technical issues and BHEC for questions about board rules.