32-3105. Health professional groups; proposed regulation; factors

A health professional group that is seeking regulation shall explain each of the following factors to the extent requested by the legislative committees:

1. Why regulation is necessary, including:

(a) The nature of the potential harm to the public if the health profession is not regulated and the extent to which there is a threat to public health and safety.

(b) The extent to which consumers need and will benefit from a method of regulation, identifying competent practitioners and indicating typical employers, if any, of practitioners in the health profession.

(c) The extent of autonomy a practitioner has, as indicated by the following:

(i) The extent to which the health profession calls for independent judgment and the extent of skill or experience required in making the independent judgment.

(ii) The extent to which practitioners are supervised.

2. The efforts made to address the problem, including:

(a) Voluntary efforts, if any, by members of the health profession to either:

(i) Establish a code of ethics.

(ii) Help resolve disputes between health practitioners and consumers.

(b) Recourse to and the extent of use of applicable law and whether it could be amended to control the problem.

3. The alternatives considered, including:

(a) Regulation of business employers or practitioners rather than employee practitioners.

(b) Regulation of the program or service rather than the individual practitioners.

(c) Registration of all practitioners.

(d) Certification of all practitioners.

(e) Other alternatives.

(f) Why the use of the alternatives specified in this paragraph would not be adequate to protect the public interest.

(g) Why licensing would serve to protect the public interest.

4. The benefit to the public if regulation is granted, including:

(a) The extent to which the incidence of specific problems present in the unregulated health profession can reasonably be expected to be reduced by regulation.

(b) Whether the public can identify qualified practitioners.

(c) The extent to which the public can be confident that qualified practitioners are competent, including:

(i) Whether the proposed regulatory entity would be a board composed of members of the profession and public members or a state agency, or both, and, if appropriate, their respective responsibilities in administering the system of registration, certification or licensure, including the composition of the board and the number of public members, if any, the powers and duties of the board or state agency regarding examinations and for cause revocation, suspension and nonrenewal of registrations, certificates or licenses, the adoption of rules and canons of ethics, the conduct of inspections, the receipt of complaints and disciplinary action taken against practitioners and how fees would be levied and collected to pay for the expenses of administering and operating the regulatory system.

(ii) If there is a grandfather clause, whether grandfathered practitioners will be required to meet the prerequisite qualifications established by the regulatory entity at a later date.

(iii) The nature of the standards proposed for registration, certification or licensure as compared with the standards of other jurisdictions.

(iv) Whether the regulatory entity would be authorized to enter into reciprocity agreements with other jurisdictions.

(v) The nature and duration of any training, including whether the training includes a substantial amount of supervised field experience, whether training programs exist in this state, if there will be an experience requirement, whether the experience must be acquired under a registered, certified or licensed practitioner, whether there are alternative routes of entry or methods of meeting the prerequisite qualifications, whether all applicants will be required to pass an examination, and if an examination is required, by whom it will be developed and how the costs of development will be met.

(d) Assurance of the public that practitioners have maintained their competence, including:

(i) Whether the registration, certification or licensure will carry an expiration date.

(ii) Whether renewal will be based only on payment of a fee or whether renewal will involve reexamination, peer review or other enforcement.

5. The extent to which regulation might harm the public, including:

(a) The extent to which regulation will restrict entry into the health profession, including:

(i) Whether the proposed standards are more restrictive than necessary to ensure safe and effective performance.

(ii) Whether the proposed legislation requires registered, certified or licensed practitioners in other jurisdictions who relocate to this state to qualify in the same manner as state applicants for registration, certification and licensure if the other jurisdiction has substantially equivalent requirements for registration, certification or licensure as those in this state.

(b) Whether there are professions similar to that of the health professional group that should be included in, or portions of the health professional group that should be excluded from, the proposed legislation.

6. The maintenance of standards, including:

(a) Whether effective quality assurance standards exist in the health profession, such as legal requirements associated with specific programs that define or enforce standards or a code of ethics.

(b) How the proposed legislation will ensure quality, including:

(i) The extent to which a code of ethics, if any, will be adopted.

(ii) The grounds for suspension or revocation of registration, certification or licensure.

7. A description of the group proposed for regulation, including a list of associations, organizations and other groups representing the practitioners in this state, an estimate of the number of practitioners in each group and whether the groups represent different levels of practice.

8. The expected costs of regulation, including:

(a) The impact that registration, certification or licensure will have on the costs of the services to the public.

(b) The cost to this state and to the public of implementing the proposed legislation.