Health care subcommittee links licensing review to Rural Health Transformation Program commitments

The health care subcommittee presented a work plan that intersects closely with the governor’s Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP), focusing on compacts, telehealth access, apprenticeships and removing administrative barriers to licensing.

Representative Etchart said the subcommittee will analyze how compacts (nursing, psychology and PA compacts already exist) might be expanded to include social work, EMS and dental categories, improving portability for providers who move to Montana. "We want to make sure that rules and regulations are set so that we don't have barriers to healthcare licensing," the co-chair said.

Director Brereton of DPHHS summarized two RHTP policy commitments that need task-force attention: the EMS compact and potential scope-of-practice changes for dental hygienists. He also described a proposed nutrition continuing medical education (CME) requirement for physicians that the governor included in the RHTP plan; Brereton said the board of medical examiners would need to review any CME requirement and that implementation would likely demand regulatory changes.

Jean Branscomb of the Montana Medical Association cautioned that physicians currently have no uniform state CME requirement and asked the committee to consider telemedicine and specialty practices when designing any nutrition CME so it does not impose inappropriate burdens on remote clinicians. Members also raised credentialing and insurer payment processes as related access issues that could be addressed in the parking lot.

Next steps: staff will provide materials from the DPHHS presentation to the full task force; the health care subcommittee will continue to meet to craft recommendations that align with both workforce and RHTP policy commitments.