HB 353-MARITAL & FAMILY THERAPY LIC. & SERVICES    4:21:10 PM CHAIR KITO announced that the final order of business would be HOUSE BILL NO. 353, "An Act relating to the licensure of marital and family therapists; relating to medical assistance for marital and family therapists' services; and providing for an effective date." 4:21:13 PM REPRESENTATIVE WOOL moved to adopt the CS to HB 253 as a working document. CHAIR KITO objected for the purpose of discussion. 4:21:52 PM CAITLYN ELLIS, Staff, Representative Sam Kito, Alaska State Legislature, presented the changes from Version A to Version O. She indicated the changes simplify the bill. She said the language regarding total hours has been clarified to 1,700 total hours. She said in Section 2 a provision has been deleted. She said the previous Sections 4 and 5 had been removed. She said SB 169 would address the details therein. 4:23:26 PM REPRESENTATIVE JOSEPHSON asked Representative Spohnholz whether she is comfortable with the proposed CS. 4:23:36 PM REPRESENTATIVE IVY SPOHNHOLZ, Alaska State Legislature, answered that the changes had been made in collaboration with her office and she was comfortable with them. REPRESENTATIVE WOOL asked about total number of hours required. REPRESENTATIVE SPOHNHOLZ stated it was always 1,700 hours required and the CS cleaned up in the language to state that additional 200 hours were a subset of the 1,700 hours. REPRESENTATIVE JOSEPHSON asked about the companion piece of legislation. REPRESENTATIVE SPOHNHOLZ answered that SB 169 has to do with the supervision of professional counselors aspect of the bill. 4:25:42 PM CHAIR KITO removed his objection to adopting the CS as a working document. There being no other objection, it was so ordered. 4:25:58 PM CHAIR KITO said public testimony on HB 353 was still open from a previous hearing. 4:26:14 PM KEVIN WALKER, Alaska Association of Marriage and Family Therapists, testified in support of HB 353. He stated he has had "a hard time" finding a supervisor who could help him acquire the required number of supervised hours. He stated he had to go to Anchorage, Alaska, to find a supervisor. He said broadening the amount of people who could act as supervisor would be helpful. REPRESENTATIVE BIRCH asked Mr. Walker to define supervision in the context of the proposed bill. MR. WALKER explained he was able to go to the office of the supervisor. He said he knows of people that did a mixed style of supervision where they met in person and via video as long as the meeting is not recorded. 4:30:31 PM CHAIR KITO closed public testimony on HB 353. 4:30:38 PM REPRESENTATIVE WOOL moved to report HB 353 out of committee with individual recommendations and the accompanying fiscal notes. There being no objection, it was so ordered.