Senate Bill No 518
Senate Bill 518 was submitted by Senator Schedler which is the basically the same as SB 814 submitted in 2004. The new bill establishes a Board of Certified Employee Assistance Professionals and places them in the Department of Health and Hospitals. The following is a brief overview of the proposed law.
The law provides that the board is authorized to:
- Issues certificates which permit and authorize individuals to practice as certified employee assistance professionals and to represent themselves to the public as such.
- Adopt and enforce rules of conduct and appropiate sanctions for certified employee assistance professionals.
- Approved educational programs required for certification.
- Establish and collect certification fees and civil penalties as provided.
- Promulgate and enforce any other rules as necessary.
The Law:
- Establishes requirement in order to be granted a certified employee assistance professional certification.
- provides for disciplinary action by the board and establishes procedures for disciplinary actions as well as procedures for review.
- Provides for the promulgation of rules and regulations regarding confidentiality of employee client records and communications in conformity with federal laws.
- Provides that other licensed professionals are protected in the practice of their profession.
- Prohibits a certified employee assistance practitioner from referring any client to himself or to any enity with whom he has a legal, employment, or financial interest for the purpose of collection for such services.
- Provides civil money penalties for violation of confidentiality provisions.
Fro a complete overview of the law you can preview the complete bill by going to Louisiana State Senate Legislative site : http://senate.legis.state.la.us, go to find a bill and type in SB 518. This should give you a complete overview of the bill.
