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BHEC staff outline bills to watch: compacts, licensure mobility, telehealth and Medicaid changes
Summary
BHEC staff told licensees they are tracking nearly 190 bills, highlighting proposals on counseling and social-work compacts, licensure mobility and telehealth registries, Medicaid payments for associate-level providers, and state budget requests that include funding for database and staffing needs.
Texas Behavioral Health Executive Council staff used a lunchtime webinar to list the bills the agency is tracking this session and to explain which measures could affect licensure, scope of practice, telehealth and agency operations.
The host said staff were tracking about 189 bills and run a daily bill search to identify measures that touch either BHEC's statutory authority or the professions it regulates. "If it has anything remotely to do with health care or mental health care, I have to read the bill to make sure that there's not some provision in there that either touches on our regulatory authority or really the profession," the host said.
Bills highlighted included House Bill 710 (Rep. Harrison), described as a "universal licensure" fast-track for applicants already licensed and practicing for at least a year in another state; counseling-compact legislation (HB1537 and SB498) with sponsors on both House and Senate sides; Medicaid-expansion bills (HB716 and SB469) that would allow associate-level MFTs and LPCs to bill Medicaid at a reduced rate during their supervised hours; and measures to create pathways for LSSP licensure (HB2157 / SB531).
On telehealth, staff flagged Senate Bill 471 (Sen. Sparks) as a proposed telehealth registry modeled on Florida's law, allowing out-of-state providers to register to provide telehealth in Texas; a separate mobility-endorsement idea (based on Florida law and referenced alongside HB716 in the webinar) would fast-track licensure for certain out-of-state licensees meeting defined criteria.
Staff also discussed the state budget (Senate Bill 1) and said BHEC requested several exceptional items in its budget request: a $125,000 one-time item to design a new psychology exam; $837,000 to fill six FTEs including two attorneys and licensing specialists and to fund an ombudsman position; and $400,000 to subscribe to the National Practitioner Data Bank continuous query service to aid renewal audits. Staff said use of the National Practitioner Data Bank subscription would be cost-saving compared with hiring staff to handle tens of thousands of manual queries.
BHEC urged licensees who want the full list of tracked bills to email the agency; the host said staff would share a PDF of the tracking list on request.
