H.B. 776 Summary

• Establishes provisional "associate" level licenses for marriage and family therapists, mental health counselors, and psychologists in training who have completed educational requirements and passed licensing exams but are still accumulating supervised clinical experience.

• Requires associate practitioners to work under direct supervision of licensed practitioners in their field and limits supervisors to overseeing no more than six supervisees at a time.

• Authorizes insurance reimbursement for services provided by supervised associate practitioners if the supervising practitioner is a contracted provider and billing rates are commensurate with the trainee's level of training.

• Allows psychologist applicants to take the licensing examination before completing the one-year post-doctoral supervised experience requirement, enabling earlier exam eligibility.

• Authorizes insurance reimbursement for supervised social work interns obtaining post-master's clinical experience under a licensed clinical social worker's supervision.