5-16-08
Colorado Governor Signs OT Registration Bill
Ralph Kohl and Ashley Opp Hofmann
On May 14, 2008, Colorado Governor Bill Ritter signed legislation that will require all occupational therapists in the state to verify that they have met professional education, experience, and examination requirements through registration with the state’s Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA).
The registration legislation sets a firm standard for Colorado therapists and moves them significantly closer to licensure. Like registration laws in other states, this bill requires occupational therapists to verify that they have met specific education, experience, and exam requirements. However, most registration laws only protect the title “occupational therapist,” not the practice of occupational therapy; this bill differs from other registration laws in that it provides protection for both. In addition, state agency staff, rather than an occupational therapy regulatory board, will oversee the registration process.
OTAC initially pursued licensure for occupational therapists and occupational therapy assistants, but the state’s regulatory laws proved to be an insurmountable roadblock. “For a profession to have licensure in Colorado, it has to prove that there has been physical harm to the consumer that licensure would have prevented,” says OTAC President Janice Hinds, MS, OTR. DORA, which is opposed to licensing a profession’s assistants, prevented occupational therapy assistants from being included in the registration bill. DORA will track and investigate any complaints against occupational therapy assistants.
OTAC asked Colorado’s occupational therapy practitioners for cases of physical harm that could have been prevented through licensure, but none were reported. The reason, Hinds suspects, is that no single, easily accessible place exists for consumers or colleagues to report cases. OTAC documented what its leaders believe were incompetence, potentially fraudulent billing, and cases in which occupational therapy assistants were asked to perform interventions and tasks outside the scope of their education and training, but they simply had no cases of physical harm. “Pursuing licensure would have been a total uphill battle,” Hinds says.
Before having a democratic governor and a democrat-controlled legislature, Colorado had strong anti-regulation leanings. When this power shifted, OTAC worked with DORA, reaching a compromise to pursue registration. “DORA’s job is to enforce Colorado statutes, and we were able to collaborate with them,” Hind says. “Not pursing licensure wasn’t about money and it wasn’t because occupational therapists aren’t professionals; it was because we didn’t meet [Colorado’s] standards for becoming a newly licensed profession.”
Throughout this legislative process, AOTA’s State Affairs staff worked diligently to provide OTAC with the necessary resources and support. Chuck Willmarth, director of AOTA’s State Affairs Group, attended OTAC’s annual conference in the fall of 2007 to participate in a panel discussion regarding licensure.
State Affairs staff also assisted OTAC throughout the legislative process by supporting grassroots activity, providing technical assistance with legislative and amendment language, researching comparative information pertaining to statutes and regulations in other states, and participating in many conference calls to discuss strategy.
To bolster their case, OTAC provided panels to testify throughout the bills’ hearings. A consumer with low vision provided particularly valuable testimony. He described the value of occupational therapy, along with his feelings of vulnerability, arguing that consumers in less populated areas or who cannot select their occupational therapist do not have an objective, independent way to know if the therapist has a legal right to practice.
Hinds has high hopes for the new legislation, which will go into effect on July 1. “It will provide a way to protect the consumer because every practicing occupational therapist in Colorado will have to be registered,” she says. “Second, if there really are harmful practitioners in Colorado, there will be a place for consumers and colleagues to report those cases [through DORA].”
Demonstrating immense perseverance, OTAC has successfully negotiated its way through the state’s political process and raised the bar of occupational therapy in Colorado.
Ralph Kohl is the state policy analyst in AOTA’s State Affairs Group. He can be reached at rkohl@aota.org.
Ashley Opp Hofmann is AOTA’s senior staff writer.