Minnesota health licensing boards ask Legislature for higher fee authority, staffing and compact fees

Members of multiple Minnesota health regulatory licensing boards told the House Health Finance and Policy Committee on Monday that rising workloads, statutory requirements and new interstate compacts are straining fee-funded operations and require changes to fee authority and spending limits.

"The boards were created by the legislator to protect the public," Samantha Strehloe, executive director of the Minnesota Board of Behavioral Health and Therapy, told the committee, summarizing the common mission of the 16 health-related licensing boards that testified. Several boards said they are fully funded by license and application fees deposited in the state government special revenue fund and receive no general fund support.

Committee members heard a consistent set of requests: modest increases in fee ceilings or specific fees so boards can cover rising fixed costs (IT, rent and AGO legal services), authority to hire additional staff to clear backlogs or maintain service levels, and statutory language to implement multistate compact fees where Minnesota has joined an interstate compact.

Boards cited several drivers. The Board of Behavioral Health and Therapy said its regulated population rose from about 4,000 in 2014 to nearly…