A bill passed in the Missouri General Assembly and awaiting the governor's signature would establish strict requirements for proposals to regulate new professions. All bills to regulate an occupation or profession would be reviewed according to the following criteria:
- Unregulated practice could cause harm and endanger the general welfare, and the potential for further harm and endangerment is recognizable;
- The public can reasonably be expected to benefit from an assurance of personal qualifications; and
- The general welfare cannot be sufficiently protected by other means.
Within two weeks of filing a bill for a new regulation, the Department of Professional Registration would be required to submit information to the General Assembly on:
- the number of individuals subject to regulation and information about the associations and organizations representing the practitioners
- why the public is not qualified to select a competence practitioner without assurances of qualifications
- the nature and extent of potential harm, including descriptions of any complaints against practitioners within the past five years
- a description of voluntary efforts made by the practitioners to protect the public and why these are inadequate
- economic impact of the regulation, including direct cost to the government and indirect costs to consumers
- projected increase or decrease in availability of services to the public
- why existing legal remedies are inadequate to address harm
- list of other states that regulate the profession, copies of their laws, and evidence of the effect of the regulation
- details of previous efforts in the state to regulate the profession
- national industry standards of minimal competence and whether the proposals exceeds these
- method to finance the regulation and associated financial data
The bill also covers a broad range of issues related to redefining "certification" to be a governmental function, limiting the right to use the title "registered" to those required to be registered with the state, suicide prevention training for health care professionals, updating definitions related to dietitians, transferring duties of the Interior Design Council to the Division of Professional Registration, repealing good moral character requirement for barbers, reciprocity for cosmetology licenses, establishing registration for hair braiders, allowing an intervention program for nurses with substance use disorder, and establishing psychology interjurisdictional compact for telepsychology.
Read the bill summary or full bill text
