My ears always perk up when the bureaucrats start talking about "updating fees" so here's what I know about that from last week's BHEC Council meeting. Oh, and every bit of the detail I have in front of me can be found in last week's meeting agenda on pages 118-125. Go download the pdf from the BHEC site and follow along. Find the video recording of the meeting here.

Proposed Executive Council Licensing Fees Timelines

The current BHEC fees which are assessed for licensure application, renewal, etc will be in place until August 31, 2023. There's no need to worry about paying the new fees since it's all automated online anyway and the BHEC staff will simply update the website and you'll be good to go. Assuming the proposed fees pass they won't go into effect until September 1, 2023.

Applications Fees-What's Changing?

• Social Workers would see their LCSW App Fee go down by $9 bucks from $129 to $120.
• LMFT's will see no change.
• The LPC application fee would drop from $221 to $165. Woo-hoo!
• The Psychologists would see the largest changes in this category, though. Looks like the LP License Issuance Fee is either being dropped or was (inadvertently?) left off the list. But 3 of the remaining 4 fees are all being lowered by healthy double digits, with the LPA Application fee dropping by $189 dollars!

Renewal Fees-What's Changing?

• The LBSW/LMSW Renewal Fee would drop by $33 bucks, the LMSW-AP/LCSW fee by $55!
• LMFT's and LPC's will both see no change here.
• The Psychologists lead the pack here, again, and will see their LP Renewal fee drop by $129 dollars.

Examination Fees-What's Changing?

• Absolutely nothing. All fees are slated to remain the same as they currently are.

Miscellaneous Fees-What's Changing?

• Nothing to see here, either, except a $4 downward price correction in the current cost of the Criminal History Evaluation.

How Are These Fees Determined?

If I heard Darrel Spinks correctly during the meeting he said that the fee schedule, across the 4 boards, is determined by using the lower of a)the current fee schedule or b)75% of the national average for the same/similar licensing fees. So someone spent some quality time looking at national averages for similar licenses and their various fees, then did a little excel spreadsheet work. Glad it wasn't me!

Summary

Unless something changes between now and when the Council/Boards approve these fee proposals, and if my simple math is correct, 10 fees will be reduced on Sept 1 2023, 1 fee for the Psych's looks to be eliminated altogether, and 2 current fees have a small $4 downward correction.

NO fees will be increased and the Psych Board licensees are the biggest winners, followed by the LPC's. If your fees didn't go down then that means you were already paying the lower option of the two choices I listed in the previous paragraph, right? And now you know!

Plan Smart. Be Safe. Serve Others.

Kathleen Mills, LPC-S, CEAP