The operation of health–related licensing boards has been at the top of the House Health Care Committee’s agenda since the last legislative session. The committee will introduce a bill in the 2009 legislative session.

Committee members are focusing on a handful of issues:

1)   Number of public members on each board. It appears the committee won't try to adjust the size of the boards, but may introduce legislation to have each board consist of 50 percent minus one public member. That means the Oregon Board of Examiners for Speech–Language Pathology and Audiology would need to replace a current professional member with a public member. Right now the Board of Examiners consists of seven members – two SLPs, two audiologists, one ENT and two public members.

2)   Removal of board members. There is interest in having each board member serve at the pleasure of the Governor. In some boards, members can only be removed "for cause" or for violation of a specific requirement that provides grounds for removal. The speech/audiology board members currently serve at the pleasure of the Governor.

3)   Monitoring of licensees with substance abuse. There is no clear direction on this one yet. Some believe there is value in having a single agency monitor all licensees from any board who are being treated for substance abuse.

Another idea on the table is more government oversight of the boards although no one has articulated what that means. One legislator suggested requiring Senate confirmation for all board members as a way to provide oversight.

The good news is that the legislators recognize that it's not practical to establish a boilerplate that each board must follow. It further appears that requiring specific geographic representation on every board does not meet with the committee's favor.

Board and association representatives will be invited to comment on these issues at two upcoming committee meetings, July 8 in Portland and September 16 in Salem.