BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 250
Page 1
CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB
250 (Obernolte)
As Amended June 16, 2015
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: |78-0 |(May 14, 2015) |SENATE: |37-0 |(June 18, 2015) |
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Original Committee Reference: B. & P.
SUMMARY: Authorizes Marriage and Family Therapist (MFT) interns
and trainees to provide services via telehealth, under specified
supervision, in order to gain supervised hours required for
licensure, as specified.
The Senate amendments make a clarifying amendment to add an MFT
trainee or intern to the definition of a "health care provider"
under the master telehealth provisions in order to make it clear
that an MFT trainee and intern may provide telehealth services,
as specified.
FISCAL EFFECT: None. This bill is keyed non-fiscal by the
Legislative Counsel.
COMMENTS: Purpose of the bill. According to the author,
"Currently, California statute [Business and Professions Code
AB 250
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(BPC)] Section 4980.43 allows [MFT] Pre-Licensees (interns and
trainees) to obtain the necessary hours toward their licensure
by conducting therapy through telehealth services. However,
another section, 2290.5, of the [BPC] fails to authorize the
very same trainees to conduct telehealth services. This lack of
conformity has raised concerns about interns, trainees, and
their supervisors being liable for performing telehealth
services without this proposed change. [This bill] will fix
this contradiction within the [BPC]. [This bill] does not
propose new policy, but rather aligns statute with a discipline
that is already in practice and contributes to the requirements
for licensure for these therapists in training."
This bill aims to clarify that MFT interns and trainees are
authorized to provide services via telehealth for the purpose of
gaining supervised experience as required for licensure.
Current law specifies that interns and trainees may not count
more than 375 hours of supervised experience via telehealth;
however, the law is not clear that they are authorized to
provide telehealth services to gain experience. This bill
attempts to provide clarity by specifying that interns and
trainees are permitted to provide telehealth services, as
specified, under the appropriate supervision of a licensed
supervisor.
Background. Marriage and Family Therapists. MFTs are employed
in clinics, counseling centers and private practice. They use
counseling or psychotherapeutic techniques to assist
individuals, couples, families, and groups with a focus on
marriage and family relationship issues. The minimum
educational and experience requirements for MFTs include a
master's degree in an area such as marriage, family, and child
counseling, marriage and family therapy, couple and family
therapy, psychology, clinical psychology, or counseling
psychology from an accredited school.
In addition, MFTs must complete supervised work experience of at
least 3,000 hours within a period of two years. In order to
accumulate supervised hours, a person must register with
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California Board of Behavioral Sciences (BBS) as an intern or
function as a trainee. Trainees are individuals who have been
enrolled in MFT graduate programs and who have completed at
least 12 semester or 18 quarter units of coursework. Interns
have earned the appropriate graduate degree and registered with
BBS, but have not taken the examination.
Current law allows MFT interns and trainees to gain up to 375
hours of supervised experience through telehealth services;
however, current law does not specifically include MFT interns
and trainees as individuals who are permitted to provide
telehealth services for purposes of gaining supervised
experience. This bill is not intended to expand or alter the
provisions of the telehealth law, but seeks to clarify that
trainees and interns are able to provide telehealth services,
under the supervision of a licensed MFT, for the purpose of
gaining supervised experience hours as required for licensure.
According to information from the sponsor, it is not uncommon
for trainees gaining supervised experience hours to utilize
telehealth as a method of providing services.
Telehealth Services. Telehealth is the delivery of
health-related services and information via telecommunications
technologies. Telecommunication technologies used in telehealth
provide support to long distance clinical health care, patient
education and public health and health information. Current law
requires a healthcare provider to verbally inform the patient
that telehealth may be used and obtain verbal consent from the
patient. In order to provide telehealth services, an individual
must be one of the licensed healing arts professionals as
defined under Division 2, in the BPC, including licensed
marriage and family therapists. This bill will more clearly
specify that a MFT trainee or intern is authorized to provide
telehealth services under the supervision of a licensee, as
specified, in order to acquire supervised experience hours as
required for licensure. This bill does not alter the current
375 hour cap on supervised hours that can be counted towards
licensure.
AB 250
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Analysis Prepared by:
Elissa Silva / B. & P. / (916) 319-3301 FN:
0001006