Oregon House Bill 2949

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Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Democrat 8-1)
Status: Introduced on January 11 2021 - 25% progression
Action: 2021-03-03 - Public Hearing held.
Pending: House Behavioral Health Committee
Text: Latest bill text (Introduced) [PDF]

Requires Mental Health Regulatory Agency to establish program to improve Black, indigenous and people of color mental health workforce, including pipeline development, scholarships for undergraduates and stipends for graduate students, loan repayments and retention activities. Requires Mental Health Regulatory Agency to establish program to improve Black, indigenous and people of color mental health workforce, including pipeline development, scholarships for undergraduates and stipends for graduate students, loan repayments and retention activities. Directs agency to provide up to $15,000 in student loan forgiveness to mental health professionals working in mental health professional shortage area. Directs Oregon Health Authority to provide funding to counties, community mental health programs and organizations to support individuals to transition from incarceration back into community. Directs Mental Health Agency to provide grants to licensed practitioners to pay costs of providing supervision of mental health practitioners in private practice. Requires employers of mental health workers to pay supervision costs of workers. Requires Oregon Health Authority to provide funding to Black, indigenous, people of color and immigrant communities to ensure access to mental health care. Appropriates moneys to agency and authority to carry out provisions of Act. Prohibits insurers from refusing to credential mental health associates. Creates Task Force on Expanding the Mental Health Workforce. Specified membership and duties. Requires report to interim committees of Legislative Assembly with recommendations for loosening restrictions on formerly incarcerated individuals obtaining licenses to provide mental health care. Limits to 1,200 number of hours of supervised clinical experience required to be licensed as professional counselor or marriage and family therapist. Changes name of "licensed professional counselor intern" and "licensed marriage and family therapist intern" to "licensed professional counselor associate" and "licensed marriage and family therapist associate." Declares emergency, effective on July 1, 2021.

Relating to mental health; declaring an emergency.

Rep. Janelle Bynum [D]	Rep. Teresa Alonso Leon [D]	Rep. Sheri Malstrom Schouten [D]	Rep. Gary Leif [R]
Rep. Courtney Neron [D]	Rep. Khanh Pham [D]	Rep. Jeff Reardon [D]	Rep. Anna Williams [D]
Sen. Lew Frederick [D]

Date	Chamber	Action
2021-03-03	House	Public Hearing held.
2021-01-19	House	Referred to Behavioral Health with subsequent referral to Ways and Means.
2021-01-11	House	First reading. Referred to Speaker's desk.

Type	Source
Summary	https://olis.leg.state.or.us/liz/2021R1/Measures/Overview/HB2949
Text	https://olis.leg.state.or.us/liz/2021R1/Downloads/MeasureDocument/HB2949/Introduced