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Dear Licensee:
This communication is to inform you of recent legislation affecting your profession.
On May 21, 2024, Gov. Jared Polis signed SB24-115, Mental Health Professional Practice Requirements, into law.
The bill requires an individual to pass the Colorado jurisprudence examination to obtain registration as a psychologist candidate, a clinical social worker candidate, a marriage and family therapist candidate, a licensed professional counselor candidate, or an addiction counselor candidate. Likewise, the bill allows for candidate licenses in the aforementioned professions to be subject to renewal, reinstatement, and delinquency fee provisions if the requirements for full registration are not met within three years.
Candidates must also complete continuing professional development and educational hours to maintain their registration as a candidate prior to a second or subsequent renewal of their candidate registration.
Furthermore, the bill adds supervision requirements for licensed professional counselors, stating that for each 1,000 hours of supervised practice in professional counseling, the candidate shall receive a minimum of 25 of the 50 hours in individual supervision, which may be in person or in telesupervision.
Licensed professional counselor candidates may also renew a candidate registration for three years if the candidate submits an application for renewal to the board before the expiration date of the current licensed professional counselor candidate registration. Additionally, the bill allows for a person in their final semester of a master’s or doctoral degree in a professional counseling program to apply for their candidate licensure.
There are multiple other new laws affecting professional counselors.
HB24-1002, Social Work Licensure Compact, is designed to eliminate the necessity for social workers to obtain licenses from multiple states by:
- providing for the mutual recognition of licenses from other states that have signed the compact, or member states;
- facilitating the exchange of licensure and disciplinary information among member states;
- authorizing member states to hold a regulated social worker accountable for abiding by a member state’s laws, regulations, and applicable professional standards in the member state in which the client is located at the time care is rendered; and,
- allowing for the use of telehealth to facilitate increased access to regulated social work services.
Under this bill, the state board of social work examiners will promulgate rules to facilitate Colorado’s participation in the compact. It is estimated that multi-state licenses will be available in 18-24 months.
HB24-1045, Treatment for Substance Use Disorders, allows licensed marriage and family therapists, licensed professional counselors, and licensed clinical social workers to provide clinical supervision to those working toward certification as a certified addiction technician or certified addiction specialist, and licensed addiction counselors as able to provide clinical supervision to individuals working toward licensure as a marriage and family therapist and licensed professional counselors if the individual performing the supervision has met certain educational requirements.
HB24-1045 also amends the practice of pharmacy to include exercising prescriptive authority for any FDA-approved product or medication for opioid use disorder in accordance with federal law, if authorized through a collaborative agreement. The State Board of Pharmacy, the Colorado Medical Board, and the State Board of Nursing are required to develop a protocol for pharmacists to prescribe, dispense, and administer certain FDA-approved products for “medication-assisted treatment”, or MAT. Pharmacists who are authorized under a statewide drug therapy protocol, a collaborative agreement, or otherwise authorized under law to prescribe, dispense, or administer medication assisted treatment for individuals with an opioid use disorder are added to the medication-assisted treatment expansion pilot program.
Pharmacies that receive grants through the pilot program must submit an annual report to the center for research into substance use prevention, treatment, and recovery support strategies by a date set by the center, with a detailed description of the training received by pharmacist, whether the pharmacists who received training are currently able to provide and are providing MOUD treatment to opioid-dependent patients, and the number of opioid dependent patients treated during the pilot program period by each pharmacist.
SB24-141, Out-of-State Telehealth Providers, adds a definition of telehealth into law, which is defined as the delivery of medical services through technologies that are used in a manner that is compliant with the federal “health insurance portability and accountability act of 1996”. On or after January 1, 2026, an applicant who possesses an out-of-state credential may provide health-care services through telehealth to patients located in this state if the applicant fits certain criteria. Out of state providers may not open a physical practice in the state of Colorado.
SB24-047, Prevention of Substance Use Disorders, exempts veterinarians from the opioid and benzodiazepine-related prescription limitations and PDMP query requirements in section 12-30-109, Colorado Revised Statutes.
This bill also authorizes medical directors or their designees to access the PDMP for any current patient of the medical practice or hospital under the medical director’s supervision. This bill also removes the Board of Pharmacy’s authority to identify prescription drugs that have a substantial potential for abuse and require reporting of those prescription drugs to the PDMP. Furthermore, the executive director of the department of health care policy and financing or the executive director’s designee, for the purposes of care coordination, utilization review, and federally required reporting pertaining to recipients of benefits under the “Colorado Medical Assistance Act'' may query the PDMP.
Another important bill to review includes HB24-1217, Sharing of Patient Healthcare Information. Under this new law, the Office of e-Health Innovation in the governor’s office is required to convene a working group to determine how to most effectively create a centralized digital consent repository that allows patients to provide, extend, deny, and revoke consent for sharing their medical data and information between physical and behavioral health-care providers, family members, community organizations, payers, and state agencies at any time.
Furthermore, the Behavioral Health Administration is required to create a friends and family input form to allow an individual to provide a treating professional or licensed or designated facility or organization with information related to a patient receiving mental health or substance use services.
Another bill to review includes:
Implementation of these changes is in progress. Questions may be referred to dora_mentalhealthboard@state.co.us. Please visit the DPO Legislative Update webpage for all updates affecting licensees under the Division’s regulatory authority. Thank you.
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