Oklahoma House Bill 3330: Invasion of Counselor Privacy or Needed Data to Help Oklahomans?
On February 22, 2024 the Oklahoma Counseling Association sent out an email to OCA members stating their opposition to Oklahoma HB 3330. The bill would require the Oklahoma Board of Behavioral Health, Oklahoma State Board of Licensed Social Workers, Oklahoma Board of Drug and Alcohol Counselors, and Oklahoma State Board of Examiners of Psychologists to gather additional clinician data when renewing their license.
The bill states that information requested would include, but not be limited to
“a. practice specialization, if applicable,
b. practice setting,
c. practice location and physical address, if applicable,
d. service delivery area, by county,
e. the average weekly number of hours providing direct services,
f. the type of behavioral health care services provided,
g. the use of telehealth, and
h. predominant payer source, if providing direct services.”
The Oklahoma Counseling Institute held its first annual Legislative Town Hall Meeting on February 15, 2024. During the meeting, Brittany Hayes with Healthy Minds Policy Initiative discussed the reasoning behind the bill. Ms. Hayes explained that having the additional information would help in identifying mental health needs in Oklahoma, as well as aid in policy development and improve access to federal funds.
For example, a county in Oklahoma may have fifty mental health counselors. However, some of those counselors may be semi-retired and carrying a small caseload, while others do not see Medicaid clients despite a high population of clients on Medicaid in that county.
Ms. Hayes stated that currently this level of detailed information is either not readily accessible or nonexistent
Health Minds contends that the additional data would help to better assess community needs and possibly lead to the development of better ways to serve clients.
The Oklahoma Counseling Association, who was unable to send a representative to the Town Hall meeting, contends that the additional questions are a privacy violation and would also be an added cost and administrative burden to the licensure boards.
OCI members may view the Oklahoma Counseling Institute 2024 Legislative Town Hall Meeting here
The Oklahoma Counseling Institute is committed to informing the Oklahoma mental health professional of legislation which may affect their practice and their clients. View OCI’s 2024 Oklahoma Legislation Tracker for up-to-date information.
The Oklahoma Counseling Association’s email sent on February 22, 2024 is provided below:
"OCA Members,
Our lobbyist has alerted us to pending legislation that we want to bring to your attention. HB 3330 will require all clinicians to submit their personal demographic information, including information about your place of employment, how many clients you see, etc. to the licensure board each year. The licensure board would then be required to share that information with ODMHSAS. This is being promoted by a group called Healthy Minds. We believe this rule is an overreach and that we should not be required to share our personal information (date of birth, etc.) to be put into a databank and that there is no legitimate need for this information related to serving our clients and the state.
This bill has already passed through committee. We are encouraging you to reach out to your personal representatives in the legislature and encourage them to vote "no" on this legislation if it comes up for a full vote. Please remember to be polite and professional in your correspondence. We are including some 'talking points' you may use below.
Oklahoma Counseling Association
HB 3330 – Data Collection
Talking Points
HB 3330 is a requested bill by the Healthy Minds Policy Initiative, an organization working to create diversity in the mental health profession. We believe that some of the data requested would be an overreach of the government into a private-sector business. Much of the data they want to collect is already readily available. Forcing licensure boards into standard applications for licensure is problematic. Each licensure has different requirements, so their applications should be formatted to their specific needs.
1. This bill will require licensure boards to track predominant payer sources for all behavioral health providers. This is invasive and would create a precedent for other license holders in the state of Oklahoma. The state does not require lawyers, doctors, accountants, and other professionals to provide this type of data to the state. We see no benefit to Healthy Minds and the Department of Mental Health for collecting this data.
2. The bill would require all licensure boards to change/update their online applications which does have a cost attached to it. At about $5,000 per change, this could be an unintended cost to each licensure board.
3. The Dept of Mental Health could send out an online questionnaire each year to all providers who could respond anonymously and provide this information voluntarily.
4. No other Oklahoma businesses are required to provide data such as race, ethnicity, gender, or the average weekly hours they work. Will other professions be required to provide this data for their licensure?
5. Oklahoma has spent many years attempting to streamline licensure applications and create a friendly system for new residents of the state. This bill goes against this long-standing principle by complicating the process by collecting unnecessary data for licensure. A person's race, ethnicity, gender, and years until they retire have no bearing on obtaining a license. Oklahoma will be collecting data that is not necessary or needed to determine if an individual should or should not be licensed.
6. The bill states that the data listed should be collected but the Board is not limited to collecting just this data. There is no oversight by the legislature into what data a board could collect. Leaving these decisions up to licensure boards with no real oversight is overreach by agencies."
Click here to suggest a correction.
The Oklahoma Counseling Institute provides continuing education (CEs) and valuable news and resources to Oklahoma mental health professionals-LPCs, LMFTs, LADCs, and LCSWs!