Occupational Regulation - Office of the Legislative Auditor

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52 OCCUPATIONAL REGULATION Table 3.1: Number of Occupations Regulated in Minnesota by Period of Time Number of Occupations Gaining State Regulation Cumulative Number of Regulated Occupations Minnesota has a policy governing occupational regulation but no process to apply the policy effectively. 1865-99 13 13 1900-09 5 18 1910-19 12 30 1920-29 9 39 1930-39 6 45 1940-49 6 51 1950-59 10 61 1960-69 7 68 1970-79 40 108 1980-89 39 147 1990-98 41 188 SOURCE: Program Evaluation Division survey. application of the Chapter 214 criteria or the collection of data that might make this possible is not the specific responsibility of any state agency or legislative staff office. Legislative committees can develop some of the information through hearings or staff work, but most of the time occupational regulation issues do not command the time and attention by committees that this would require. Several legislators who we interviewed mentioned that they are faced with making decisions about regulation without enough time or information. There is another important factor that interferes with the process: political influence by occupational groups and their representatives. This was mentioned by many legislators we talked with and ranked high on the list of problems mentioned in a survey we conducted of board and agency managers responsible for occupational regulation. Whether motivated by a desire to become eligible for third-party reimbursement, protect the right to practice, or pre-empt varying local regulatory requirements, occupational associations are active in the political and legislative process. Some larger occupational groups have considerable power, but even small groups with narrow concerns can be influential over time and can interfere with the process by which statutory policy is applied in a given situation. As the 1998 Pew Commission Report points out, this is an important national concern related to occupational regulation. 3 We conclude that there is a need for a mechanism that will help control the number of proposals and provide for better information bearing on the statutory criteria for regulation. We suggest several options for improving the process by which the Legislature handles proposals for occupational regulation. Some of 3 L. J. Finocchio, C. M. Dower, N. T. Blick, C. M. Gragnola, and the Taskforce on Health Care Workforce Regulation, Strengthening Consumer Protection: Priorities for Health Care Workforce Regulation (San Francisco, CA: Pew Health Professions Commission, 1998), 21.
EFFECTIVENESS OF OCCUPATIONAL REGULATION 53 Better information is needed on how regulatory proposals meet state policy objectives. We suggest several options for carrying out studies of regulatory proposals. these are recommendations which have been made before and even tried before but we think there are compelling reasons to try again. Our interviews detected no widespread sense of urgency, however, even among legislators and others who think there is a real problem, so our options include incremental steps that can be taken without any major organizational changes. As one option: · The Legislature could require a study of how each major proposal for new regulation or significant increase in regulation meets the Chapter 214 criteria. There are several alternatives for conducting the studies. They could be carried out by state agencies, by specialized legislative staff, or by existing committees. As we discussed in Chapter 1, the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) Human Services Occupational Advisory Council (HSOAC) used to perform such studies for the health-related occupations, and many in the Legislature and elsewhere believe the studies were useful even though the recommendations of MDH were not always heeded. The following option could be tried without implementing any major organizational changes: · Committees hearing bills proposing new occupational regulation could require proponents to submit specific information as a condition for obtaining a hearing. The virtue of this idea would be to focus debate on issues relating to the Chapter 214 criteria. The criteria would have to be operationalized in a specific set of questions, however. The questions asked by the Health Department in carrying out the HSOAC studies could serve as a model. Additional models are provided by other states that have institutionalized a sunrise process. For example, the Florida House of Representatives Committee on Business and Professional Regulation uses a “Sunrise Questionnaire” that poses 62 questions that proponents of regulation must address. Florida’s sunrise law is similar to that of Minnesota and other states with such legislation in that the regulatory decision hinges on the extent to which the unregulated practice of the occupation will endanger the public health, safety, or welfare. Maine has put a set of questions into its statute governing occupational regulation. We think legislative committees could use a relatively simple version of these questionnaires in the first stage of the process by which regulatory proposals are considered, and require a more detailed study for those ideas that make the first cut. Figure 3.2 lists some illustrative questions proponents for occupational regulation could be required to address. A secondary benefit of requiring specific information would be that some groups seeking regulation would be unable to mount the organized effort to produce a reasonable proposal. The ability to do so is not irrelevant to the issue under consideration because if an occupation or profession has not reached a certain level of maturity and separate identity, it cannot be regulated effectively by enacting a practice act, issuing credentials that have a specific meaning, and enforcing standards of practice. As a practical matter, to be regulated an
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