Public Health Committee approves substitute to Senate Bill 162 to regulate standalone ketamine clinics and modernize credentialing

The Public Health Committee voted to approve a substitute to Senate Bill 162, advancing provisions that (1) give the state medical board authority to regulate standalone clinics providing off‑label ketamine and other psychedelic treatments and (2) direct the composite medical board to modernize credentialing and licensing processes for physicians, physician assistants and advanced practice nurses.

Supporters said the measure addresses two separate but related concerns: patient safety at emerging outpatient ketamine/psychedelic clinics and workforce shortages caused by slow hospital credentialing. Sen. Sandra Hufstedler, sponsor of the Senate portion of the measure, told the committee the bill “includes the bill that we passed the other day for the board of medicine to regulate these clinics that are popping up all over our state” and said the aim is to avoid problems similar to earlier pain‑clinic proliferation.

Hufstedler described a parallel…