The dawn of a new era in the delivery of psychotherapy, counseling and crisis response.
Thanks to technology, we can deliver these services across the country and around the globe.
Not so fast, Sherlock.
Our clients can't take advantage of all the technical marvels because of licensure issues. Our tech may be 21st century, but our clinical licensure is stuck in the 20th century. You cannot deliver services across state lines, unless you hold a license in that state. That costs money. And there is often no reciprocity, meaning you may have to take an exam and jump through a variety of hoops to get that other license.
This leads to all kinds of sub-optimal, illegal and unethical work arounds. Call your services "coaching" and you don't have to be licensed. Go ahead and do it anyway. When was the last time someone was prosecuted for delivering services across state lines?
The truth is we need a permanent solution, and fixlicensure.org aims to do just that. This is their manifesto:
It is time for consumers and patients to freely access doctors and other health care professionals no matter where they are located throughout the country... This requires a massive overhaul of our medical licensure system. The current approach, requiring health providers to obtain multiple state licenses and adhere to diverse and sometimes conflicting state medical practice rules, is a barrier to progress, quality, competition and economy... ...The U.S. military and Veterans Affairs (VA) Department have already acted to fix licensure barriers. So have the European Union and many other countries. American consumers, American health providers and American taxpayers are being left behind. ...the time to take action is now.A good place to start is to sign their petition.
I know I have.
No comments:
Post a Comment