Legislative Update

The Florida Legislature is nearly halfway through the annual legislative session which began in early March. There have been a total of 2,992 bills filed and yet only 21 have passed. With session halfway over, it appears this year will result in fewer bills passing than in recent years. Much of this can be attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Legislature is forced to focus more on how to stretch the state budget in a post-COVID world and less about political disagreements.

FMHCA has been actively participating in the legislative process. In fact, FMHCA crafted bill language, attained bill sponsors in the House and Senate and is in the process of securing broad support for legislation that has a positive impact on LMHCs and the people you treat.

Specifically, FMHCA is spending this session (and perhaps next session depending on how contentious the bill remains) focusing on a two-part bill which does the following:

1) HB 941/SB 818 would remove the requirement that a supervisor be on the premises when a registered intern is providing services in a private practice setting. It would maintain the requirement that the registered intern must practice under indirect supervision.

Background— Under current law, a licensed mental health professional must be on the premises when clinical services are provided by a registered intern in a private practice setting.

The regulation requiring that a qualified supervisor be on the premises only applies to private practice settings and the term “on the premises” has never been defined and therefore cannot be easily enforced. During the COVID-19 pandemic neither the qualified supervisor nor the intern was practicing in person for the most part, so these mental health counseling residents were forced to choose between treating patients’ critical mental health conditions and upholding the law.

2) Additionally, Florida Law states that, for the purpose of administering court appointed forensic evaluations, to the extent possible, the appointed experts shall have completed forensic evaluator training approved by the department, and each shall be a psychiatrist, licensed psychologist, or physician.

Because of the confusion surrounding the term “to the extent possible”, some jurisdictions do not permit LMHCs, LMFTs, and LCSWs to conduct evaluations for the courts, regardless of their individual levels of expertise and training and despite that assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of mental disorders is within the scope of practice of all Chapter 491 licensees.

This bill makes it clear that mental health counselors who have undergone forensic evaluator certification are equally qualified to provide these services to the courts as the groups I listed previously. This change will significantly expedite the judicial process and provide better access to qualified health care professionals.

Status—these bills have a hefty journey ahead of them to pass the legislative process.

Each bill must be heard in three committees. FMHCA will be hard at work lobbying these issues and will update you often as the bill moves forward in the process.

Another bill worth mentioning is SB 72, relating to liability protections resulting from COVID-19. The bill will protect businesses as well as some health care practitioners from frivolous lawsuits which could be brought forth in response to the pandemic. As of now, Chapter 491 licensees are protected in the current version of the legislation; however, there are many iterations and FMHCA is battling to keep its members protected and retained in the bill.

The Legislative Session is only 60 days long. A lot of the real work begins after session concludes. It’s imperative that the Mental Health Counseling profession advocate directly with the legislators by setting “get to know you” meetings in your hometowns. FMHCA will be sending additional guidance outlining how to set meetings with your constituent legislators.

Written By: Corinne Mixon, DPL

Corinne Mixon is a registered Designated Professional Lobbyist who has been lobbying statewide government in Tallahassee for 15 years.