ALC-Occupational Licensing Review Subcommittee
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0:00
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Speaker 2
7:00
Act 600, which is page three and four, says it's the intent of the General Assembly to determine and implement the least restrictive form of occupational authorization to protect consumers from significant and substantial harm to public health and safety so with that said
my motion would be for the that we would further develop this idea of making the acupuncturist license optional and uh for final inclusion in the in our report okay and i'm going to
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
7:48
take these one at a time um and we have questions and i'm going to recognize senator
bledsoe for question but i also um because this is a new committee and a new process one of the things that we were not able to do because it's new and is we once these recommendations are made and the reason why we
wanted to do these in a time frame is so that then these different boards and people could come back at that time so that they could weigh in on this and that did not happen so um we're going to go ahead and have this discussion but um we were not they did not get notified of these recommendations so that it doesn't give them the opportunity to come and talk or weigh in before we make a vote but with that i do think we need to go ahead and have some discussion um
so i'm going to recognize senator bloodsoe for a question and i think mr gilmore is from the health department is here to to discuss this one and then we'll take up the next one after this we're finished with this
Senator Cecile Bledsoe
Unverified
8:58
one senator Bledsoe you're recognized thank you madam chairman I have some comments first if that's all right with the chair yes ma'am I was in that meeting that we just where we discussed the acupuncture and it had nothing to do our my
objection and the objection of others had nothing to do with turf the board just a minute sorry it had nothing to do with turf the president of that board had come before the health committee several years ago and he had come as the doctor of oriental medicine
and he had been writing prescriptions as the doctor of oriental medicine and the pharmacists in the state were concerned about filling a prescription from the doctors of oriental medicine. And in that meeting that we had, it was not just acupuncture that we were discussing, but also we were talking about how oriental medicine can be used to help people. Now, I'm not focusing on that, but definitely when you have patients, you have a responsibility to protect them.
And I think that is what we have as legislators. When we think that there may be some danger in a certain discipline, it is always good to have someone overseeing that. And because of that particular experience, at that meeting of public health several years ago, we mandated that acupuncturists and what they do would have the oversight of the medical board.
That's how serious it is. And so I'm not sure where that came from to say that it was turf. And I don't know whose turf they would be in. but uh
Speaker 2
11:17
and i could clarify that uh if you if i may so i know as legislators we we see the scope of practice a lot and we call that a turf war that's not the spirit by which that comment was made in my conversation with representative womack uh and my recollection of the meeting
the only complaint that the board had handled had been a report of somebody operating without a license and from sitting on the auctioneer's licensing board i know many times that is basically two competitors you know trying to get each other in trouble what happens in the car business too uh where you know you have to be licensed and so you want all your competition to be licensed so when i said turf related and i think the spirit of what representative womack presented to me when he used that term had nothing to do with scope of practice it was more to do
with the fact that the only complaint that they seem to have handled over the years has been
Senator Cecile Bledsoe
Unverified
12:16
reports of somebody operating without a license. Well, to make a license optional when acupuncturists are dealing with blood doesn't seem to be a very safe thing. And a license is to be sure that people know what to do and how to treat those instruments that they're using.
whether to put them in an autoclave or whatever. And I think that this is only reasonable for the people of Arkansas to expect that if they go to an acupuncturist, that he or she would be licensed by the state. And in this case, maybe some oversight from the medical board. It's just a safety issue in my mind. It has nothing to do with scope or practice. It's a safety issue. And I have observed an acupuncturist working on a patient, and I will tell you that they do need a license.
We have areas in our state which probably some of the people don't need a license. But when you're working with people and there's an issue of blood and it's about the safety of that patient, they definitely need a license. So my question would be to Matt Gilmore, if he would come up, and let me ask him my question, please. Yes. Mr. Gilmore,
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
13:41
if you'll come up. Department of Health.
You just state your name for the record, and then Senator Bledsoe can ask
Senator Cecile Bledsoe
Unverified
14:00
a question. Matt Gilmore, Department of Health. Thank you. Well, Mr. Gilmore, the State Health Department oversees the board. Is that right? That is correct. Since transformation, yes, ma'am. All right. And they are the ones that issue the license? The board does. Okay. Well, what goes into that?
Matt Gilmore
Unverified
14:16
Tell me a little bit about that. I have worked with them just since transformation. They've had several meetings. They're going
through the rulemaking process now to update the rules due to the past legislation. from the last session but um there it's a small board i think there's a total of five and it's not totally full right now but um they do hear uh their applicants come before the board their applications do excuse me and they review those um a couple of meetings i've been in you
know they they look at them pretty closely they look at issues you know background issues they look at um you know where they've practiced and you know if their continued education is is there and also their
degree requirements. So I don't know all the details to what the license entails. It's still really new to us, but I think
Senator Cecile Bledsoe
Unverified
15:10
the board does take it seriously. All right. And how many licensed acupuncturists do we have in the state?
Matt Gilmore
Unverified
15:17
I believe there's 37 is the number I heard a few minutes ago, but it's less than 40. I think they have a database
Senator Cecile Bledsoe
Unverified
15:28
of around 60 or 70, but some of those are inactive. And would you happen to know whether or not during their training they have, you know, those who have been in acupuncture for a long time are training them what to do about the sterilizing of instruments,
the disposal of blood looking to see if during their treatment if there is someone who maybe is on a blood thinner all those things that would go into safety for patients. I can't speak to all that because it's it's not you know
Matt Gilmore
Unverified
16:06
that's not my expertise but if I remember correctly back to when the board chair presented here he alluded to that those types of procedures you're talking about I believe there's a four-year program they're required to go through so I would feel confident
saying they have the training and the board expects that of them okay
Senator Cecile Bledsoe
Unverified
16:28
would you think that the board would be in favor of not having a license I haven't discussed the board about
Matt Gilmore
Unverified
16:35
this I don't know so that's not coming from the board as far as you
Senator Cecile Bledsoe
Unverified
16:39
know as far as I'm yes as
Matt Gilmore
Unverified
16:42
far as the board is not i'm not speaking for the as far as for the board itself the board members they are not aware of um what you know this this motion might be i mean this is first you know we heard
Senator Cecile Bledsoe
Unverified
16:55
in the last day or two but i am correct in that the medical board was mandated to oversee their policies and procedure not policies but procedures when they're working on a patient their
Matt Gilmore
Unverified
17:08
their rulemaking rulemaking so their rules have to go through the medical board before they come to us and then the governor's office
Senator Cecile Bledsoe
Unverified
17:16
okay thank you very much thank you
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
17:19
madam chair thank you senator I'm sorry I have representative flowers and senator garner for question representative flowers thank you madam chair
Representative Vivian Flowers
Unverified
17:27
I just had a quick question and then a comment Mr. Gilmore can you tell us if you're aware, and you may not be, how many states out of 50 don't require a license? I don't have that
Matt Gilmore
Unverified
17:45
with me today. I know that there are several surrounding states, and I say surrounding, I think Texas is one. I want to say Tennessee does, but I don't have that number with
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
17:59
me today. Okay. Representative Payton can answer.
Speaker 14
18:01
Okay. Great. Thank you. Well, the notes that were shared with me only
Speaker 39
18:08
shows The only one I was made aware of was
Representative Vivian Flowers
Unverified
18:13
Oklahoma, but it didn't present it as being the only one, but it
just uses Oklahoma as an example. Thank you. I hate to look on the Internet and take that as law, because actually utilizing the National Association's examination is different than licensure. But I do see that just based on that, there are three states that don't require any kind of licensure based upon the national examination.
I would love to see what the actual numbers are, though, just in terms of licensure or some sort of safety regulation like what we have in the state. We'll get that for you. Thank you. The comment that I would like to make is based on my own experience. You know, I'm not a physician. I do have physicians in my family, and because of that exposure, I would echo Senator Bledsoe's concern about public safety. I think that any time you're dealing with considering enhancing regulation, it should be and is specifically to protect the people.
and the first role and the most important role of government is to protect our citizens and my experience in utilizing or being a patient of acupuncture it was effective for what I needed it for but it was also a little bit scary I don't know if anyone has laid on the table before and had a bunch of fine needles sticking out of your body at different points in time but that's really what it is and when the needle is is positioned and stuck inside of your tissue one thing that
is a danger and something that really scared me and at different points I had to go hey was you're also dealing with the danger not only of those issues that Senator Bledsoe mentioned but also if you have someone who doesn't know what they're doing there's a very serious threat of nerve damage depending on how deep the needle is actually twisted down into your tissue so you know it's not even just about the blood and cleanliness disposal blood and cleanliness
but the actual procedure of using these needles in the tissue of people and especially when you're dealing with seniors and how your body changes, I would be very concerned to be in a state where we didn't have regulatory standards, licensure, and oversight for complaints, not just for setting those standards, because actually I believe that we have had one or a few complaints in the state
because we have licensing. So I don't think that that should be a reason to get rid of the licensing because we don't have that many complaints. We don't have any because you have 23 to 33 people who are inactive for whatever reason. So I just wanted to make that point, and thank you, Madam Chair, for the opportunity to make my statement and ask my question. Thank you.
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
21:23
Senator Garner. I believe that's you. Yes, ma'am. Thank you very much. So
Senator Trent Garner
Unverified
21:28
I sit on the task force where we deal with occupational license,
went to Arizona when we did this kind of study. one of the things that was always brought up whenever somebody talked about either changing or getting rid of an occupational license is public safety. It talked about barbers. It talked about different kind of fields. It talked about things that had zero to do with public safety. It's always a catch-all to do it. I understand it might be a real concern. My question is, is we do have a wonderful case study in this case. I read six. It could be three states that do not have a licensing system for occupational licensing.
What I would like you to do, or from the people who would be involved with the board, is to show me real documented cases where those states produce bad outcomes, i.e. patients who actually were hurt by unlicensed acupuncturists, and to show that real live data. Because if there's truly a public safety issue, then there should be examples of cases where people who have been hurt by it. If you can show me that documentation, I think I would be very open to leaving this in. But if that does not exist,
and we have years of examples of this not being a public safety issue, I think that's something that we as a body should do it. So if it's possible, either yourself, to look at those three or six states, depending on how you qualify them, to see if they're, or maybe seeing a broader spectrum, if there's acupuncture issues, injury, nerve damage, death, or other things, that kind of data, I think, would be very good us to see to see if this
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
23:01
is actually a public safety issue or not
thank you thank you i have a question mr gilmore um so you the department of health was it during the transformation
that this board was moved under the department of health is that correct that's correct yes so that was in july july so um you're not as familiar with them just because you've never really had before were they just an independent entity right okay um all right so because because some of the testimony that they came back with was that or that
they gave to this task force last time around i think which precipitated some of these
recommendations was that they use only disposable nevels so they're not using autoclaves but but now what I'm hearing is that actually might be
different, not necessarily the case. Do you know? I don't know. I've never had this done, so I'm very unfamiliar in this world. I
Matt Gilmore
Unverified
24:03
think once this moves forward, this process, we would need to engage the board more and
get more information from them. I'm not an acupuncturist. I've never had the procedure done, so I can't really speak to that.
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
24:16
Okay, question. Some chiropractors do acupuncture. That's correct. is the chiropractor board under the department of health they are yes ma'am and does like the state the state medical board does approve the rules and regulations for the acupuncture board correct any changes yes ma'am have to
Matt Gilmore
Unverified
24:35
be approved by the medical board
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
24:38
yes ma'am does the medical board also approve rules and regulations for the chiropractor board they do not they do not okay
so because one of the things that for efficiency purposes that I think I don't have this as a formal recommendation but this can always trans I mean these can be further developed or these ideas is that I mean we may need more information whatever but I don't want to duplicate if we've got one board that's dealing with just acupuncturist and then a board that deals with chiropractors but then you have chiropractors that are chiropractors and acupuncturists then to me that would be a merge and a perfect fit however i wouldn't want to lose the oversight
capabilities of the state medical board does that make sense so for members of the committee i mean i think this is a process and um two things one is i think we absolutely need to make sure that these entities whoever they are whether it's this one or the next one with arkansas Fire Protection Licensing Board is notified of our recommendations and then gives gets the opportunity to come before us but I'm going to leave it up to the members of the committee on
how you guys want to proceed on this so representative Payton's motion is for further development of this recommendation prior to inclusion in the final report so but I do think it's necessary that we contact these both entities and have them come before us perhaps at our next meeting whichever way we decide to go on this so it's really up to the members of the committee or representative
Speaker 11
26:21
if i could make further comments i'd like to impress
Speaker 2
26:26
upon my colleagues that the
presence of a license requirement by the state or the absence of a license requirement by the state does not relieve a practitioner from liability for negligence and you know the fact that we're not requiring a license would not mean that they're exempt from having to worry about the safety of their patients and as a consumer you're going to look for who is a responsible practitioner with a good reputation and we have many means at our fingertips to to try to research that but
when we make the license voluntary, there will be practitioners who want to be licensed so that they can advertise that they are licensed. They want to do training and join associations so that they can advertise that they are well-trained and members of the association. This license for acupuncturists has not been around forever, and I don't know of anybody that gave any examples at our last meeting of there being a public health issue as what brought forth the licensure
or the reason to start licensing. We can look at states, as Senator Garner brought up, we can look at states that do not require a license and there doesn't seem to be some health epidemic of malpractice by practitioners. So the idea that the license somehow guarantees the safety of the public and the absence of negligence by the practitioner I think is something that that we need to understand doesn't necessarily exist but also just because a license is voluntary doesn't
mean that nobody's going to get the license as an auctioneer prior to like 1989 or 90 we didn't have a license in Arkansas but many auctioneers would go get city occupation license and things like that so that they could advertise that they were a licensed auctioneer and and i believe that a voluntary license will be utilized uh for for practitioners to set theirself apart in advertising and woo customers but
Speaker 11
28:43
anyway i'd be happy to answer any other questions that you have okay
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
28:48
i have a few in the queue
senator bledsoe oh just push your button
Senator Cecile Bledsoe
Unverified
29:00
one more time there you go Thank you, Madam Chairman. I wasn't clear on whether you said we would be voting on it today. And my question is, if we are going to do that, would you have the motion repeated so that we could really understand what we did?
Speaker 2
29:18
and staff or the madam chair may want to clarify this my understanding is we are voting on whether
to uh to authorize staff to work on draft legislation that will be included in the final report of this committee to the general assembly we will have multiple opportunities to debate and discuss the language in that draft legislation not only as a committee but then as it moves forward during a session if i'm and somebody correct me if i'm wrong in that
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
29:50
no that's that's what the motion is so we're we're operating uh basically the same way the task force on tax
reform operated so people would bring recommendations and then um we would get then make a motion if the motion was approved then we would develop that into working with um the staff on draft legislation and then it gets brought back before us for a final recommendation before it gets included into the report during that process sometimes things went all the way through and sometimes they fell apart because of what we found so it just gives us the option to
say this is something that we want to explore basically I think that's where we're at so that's the way i see this process as how um it needs to go through um and how we're trying to develop this but again whether we vote to do this or not today i am still directing staff to contact the arkansas state board of acupuncture and related techniques and the department of health to come back before this subcommittee and weigh in on these recommendations because that's that
was our intent that they would be here today but they were not notified because this is a
Speaker 23
31:14
new process if that answers your question senator bledsoe
Representative Vivian Flowers
Unverified
31:23
okay yes thank you okay representative flowers thank you madam chair um i just wanted to share with um my colleagues here today that that even
though we are going to receive more specific information regarding the actual
licensure requirements or the number of states that require licenses, the National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine indicates that only three states have no Acupuncture practice act now that doesn't mean that those states don't do or do not have licenses but I and Oklahoma is one of those states so that may overlap with the licensure requirements and it gives some further delineation about who requires sort of certificates or certification and licensure that's one
point and the other I guess point that I would make is in addition to searching for states and examples within our own state where there may be complaints or examples of death, I think it might be beneficial to see what those statistics look like before there was licensure in the state. And also for those states who do not require licensure
to look to see whether or not there are any practicing acupuncturists to even determine whether or not that they are practicing acupuncturists where there are no issues. Because I guess my question would be, how can you as a patient looking for the best acupuncturists and for people who know what they're doing, be able to do so without an entity that actually
collects that information. If you are not required to get a license, how would a patient looking for that service be able to even look you up and determine whether or not you've committed harm without hiring a lawyer maybe to do a background, some sort of background research. And finally, I just would point out that while this is, I think, a really important committee that does important work, because I don't think any of us want to see any waste of taxpayer dollars
or time or unnecessary burdens for particular services and businesses there's a definitive difference between a business for example car sales or I forget what Representative Payton the other example so what yes or auctioneer there's a definitive difference between those two professions and the possibility of what kind of harm could come to a patient.
There's a difference between a customer and a patient. And while, in fact, in this country, you know, there is an overlap between providing a service in the health arena and a business, it's still not just any business. It is the important role and work of government to ensure that when people are allowed to do business, particularly in the health fields, and provide a service for which there's mandated training and hours of practice, that people can be protected to ensure that they will not be harmed, lose their life, or be injured.
so it's just very different and I just want us to be mindful of that when we're thinking and looking at other examples of licensure we need to compare apples to apples and not apples to soccer balls. Okay thank you. Representative
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
35:32
Cousart. Thank you Madam Chair. Representative Payton
Representative John Payton
Unverified
35:35
I just have one thing I see where you're going with this and I don't have a whole lot of problem with that I agree with some things can be optional and people will want that shingle to hang up and if we look at most of these that are in a city they're gonna be required to
have an occupational license in that city so they're gonna still have a license of some sort if they work out of a city now if they work out of their own home that's gonna be a different situation so I kind of agree with what you're going here I'm not a hundred percent good with it but I can see where you're going with what it is but I just want people to know that they're still probably going to have to have a license if they're
Representative Bruce Cozart
Unverified
36:16
in a city operating because that's just the way the occupation is and if i could make
Speaker 2
36:23
further comment yes um so you know as we
move forward with an idea like this i mean it's open to refinement and a suggestion was made earlier off the cuff and it may may be good or maybe not be good but i'll just give you an example of suggestions it could be made was you know maybe bring it underneath of the chiropractor board because there are some chiropractors that work on it but anyway i mean we are talking about here what i think is very consistent with the act that that established
this committee and that is to look at ideas that would reduce restrictive licensure and And, you know, if we have a board established and rules established and everything that handle 37 practitioners, I think it's ripe for further discussion. Representative Godfrey. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
37:27
If I could ask a question to Representative Payton. You mentioned earlier that licensed acupuncturists could
Representative Megan Godfrey
Unverified
37:32
advertise themselves as such. would there be any necessary qualification of unlicensed acupuncturists to advertise themselves as such, or could they just say, I'm an acupuncturist, whether or not they indeed have a license? That's a great question, and I think it would be part
Speaker 39
37:49
of what would be open to the language in the legislation that we would recommend to the General Assembly. Thank you.
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
37:59
so members just so to remind you of the timeline that we voted to accept for the subcommittee so
in September of 2020 at that subcommittee meeting we have discussion and votes regarding which final recommendations to include in the report and to move forward through draft legislation so we have the ability to do that in September October and November of next year so there's three subcommittee opportunities to come back and discuss any recommendations um and then our draft of our final report is in november of 2020 with draft legislation presented to the subcommittee
for any final revisions and vote so there's really there's three opportunities to look at this other than that what today is just giving this you know representative womack actually who's not here the authority just to say okay further develop this idea this is something we're interested in looking at to see what you come up with basically that's the motion are there any other questions this time and it could it could go it could grow beyond this
um or it could actually be more limited is that a fair assessment representative
payton that would be my understanding
Speaker 2
39:22
yes the motion specifically is for further development of this recommendation prior to inclusion
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
39:30
in the final report okay and again before we vote on that just want everybody to be aware we will be inviting the state board of acupuncture related techniques to come to the next meeting and give us their input as well and moving forward any recommendations that we bring
forward we will have them at the same meeting that we're discussing it yes so all right is there a second okay second and those in favor
say aye aye and opposed okay i'm gonna oh okay i'll say that the ayes have it for now um y'all need to vote loudly please
all right all right representative payton you're recognized for the next recommendation thank you madam
Speaker 2
40:38
chair and colleagues i i uh i hate to go way beyond and butcher another one of co-chair womack's ideas but uh this next one is about sprinkler fitters and if you remember our last meeting uh the recommendation that represent that co-chair womack would like to make would be
the repeal of occupational authorization or licensure so what it is the contractors board already requires a license for sprinkler contractors and they're responsible for the sprinkler fitters which are their employees and so my understanding is that we're basically having double licensure the way I would look at it. There are 10 of 14 states in our economic region that do not license sprinkler fitters, including three states that border us. That's Missouri, Tennessee, and Mississippi. Taking this action again would be in line with the spirit of
Act 600, and the public would still be adequately protected by the requirements that are placed and the responsibilities that are placed on sprinkler contractors representative thank you madam chair
Representative John Payton
Unverified
41:49
represent payton I talked with State Farm Marshal before this meeting about this and I told you I was going to and he said that the board recommends that we keep that because some of those fitters do work for
different contractors they don't always work just for the same contractor but sometimes move around so that lets that contractor know that those people are qualified and licensed so i'm going to leave it there i'm not going to go expound on that much more because i know we will be revisiting this so i'm just going to leave it at that point that's just my discussion time thank
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
42:26
you ma'am chair are there any other questions seeing none so the motion is there a second
Speaker 14
42:35
should i clarify the motion it's the same motion
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
42:38
as before. The motion is to further develop this recommendation prior to the inclusion of the final report. There's a second. Those in
favor say aye. Aye. And opposed? No. Okay, I have like three
Speaker 85
43:04
know. Maybe not. I didn't rebut your statement at all.
okay i would love for the state to
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
43:13
vet my again we will be inviting those um entities to come next meeting to weigh in on these recommendations so that we have
further information and we will have hopefully more people show up in next meetings um moving to item exhibit d review of reports from the different entities arkansas
auctioneers licensing board Mr. Brad Woolley, if he'll come up, and Ms. Christy Arnold.
Before we have your testimony, I do want to address the
Department of Health. I think that a lot of points were brought up and questions were asked. So if you could bring that information to our
next subcommittee meeting on these issues particularly, I think that would be important to do. Thank you. Okay, if you will state your
name for the record, then you may proceed. My name
Speaker 90
44:26
is Brad Woolley. I am the chairman of the Arkansas Auctioneers Licensing Board.
Speaker 92
44:31
I am Christy Arnold, the secretary of the treasury of the
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
44:39
Auctioneers Licensing Board. Okay. all right if you want to go through your um report for
Speaker 95
44:47
us it's exhibit d1 members well i'd like to give you an overview very simply
Speaker 90
44:53
overview of our board we were put together in 1989 we licensed today how many licensees we've got 757 757
licensees. We require them to pay a license and exam fee, an annual fee, and Christy will go over those fees with you in a moment. We require a six hours of continuing education every year. We basically educate our licensees after they become licensed because there's no pre, you don't have to go to school or anything to take the application to apply for the exam
you do have to have a criminal background check our meetings we have meet four times a year we have three member four members from the occupation itself four auctioneer members of the board and the other three are from the general public all appointed by the governor that's that's pretty much a simple overview we do we have hearings four times a year or actually meetings four times a year we have a hearing coming up with a problem we can't discuss because
it's an active hearing but that's pretty much an overview of our committee okay how much um so
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
46:26
i see there's fees and penalties so how much is it um on a yearly basis to be for your license it's a
Speaker 96
46:36
hundred dollar renewal fee every year if they go past the
Speaker 92
46:42
120 day grace period we give them it's double
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
46:45
the fee okay okay so these other fees are one-time fees
yes I see okay um so
in order okay all right representative richmond thank you madam chair on the question I have could you
Representative Marcus E. Richmond
Unverified
47:01
expand just a little bit on the on the test that that folks do just a little bit of explanation of what it is that they I mean do they get up and have to give a an auctioneer line of what they're doing or Or is it mostly written?
Speaker 90
47:21
Well, it's mostly written. In fact, we do have an oral portion of the exam, and it's worth 25 points, if I'm not mistaken. Quite frankly, I personally feel like that the oral portions of the exam probably should be done away with because I know a lot of auctioneers across the country that have a really terrible auctioneer's chant, and they make lots of money. So it's not really the chant that we're looking for when we do the oral portion of the exam.
It's basically them to disseminate the terms and conditions, the rules of how the auction is going to take place. The oral, I mean, the written portion of the exam is a written test. We give them two hours to conduct the exam. It is a very basic exam. I mean, we want to make sure that they can read and write and do simple arithmetic and that they're vaguely familiar with the laws that pertain to the auction profession and we provide them with that study
Speaker 103
48:23
material follow up madam chair yes yeah just the also
Representative Marcus E. Richmond
Unverified
48:29
a couple of things concerning the fees I see that there's a penalty fee and it says once you have to pay that and then also on the exam fee with the do they have to pay that if they fail the exam Of course, I would think that they would have to pay that each and every time that they take the exam. I don't understand the penalty
fee. Did you just go ahead and pay that because
you expect them to be late on their thing? How does that work? I didn't know how to put that in.
Speaker 104
49:00
I was told, I mean, we do it one time. It's a late renewal fee, and if they're not late, they don't have to pay it. The fee is $100 if they did not renew on time. Okay.
Representative Marcus E. Richmond
Unverified
49:13
Thank you, ma'am. Thank you, sir. thank you
Speaker 11
49:21
madam chair thank you representative payton thank you madam chair and uh colleagues full disclosure
Speaker 2
49:26
if you missed it earlier i'm an auctioneer and i've been licensed by the board since uh uh number 136 i guess that's probably 1989 anyway uh brad and christy and i have debated
the continuing education back and forth but licensure as an auctioneer entails a lot more than that. There's a lot of contractual law and things. Arkansas law requires that auctioneers be bonded by a surety bond. And if I could, I'd like to ask, well, I know I said that wrong, but what my question is to you is, can you tell this committee how much money you have saved auctioneers in Arkansas since the 15 years or so ago that we changed that from a surety bond
Speaker 90
50:13
to a self-insured the board does it i don't have that figure no i
Speaker 106
50:20
do not no i don't think you misunderstand
Speaker 90
50:25
his question your question if i may uh refer make sure that you're at you are asking how much money we've saved auctioneers over the years of them not having to pay a surety bond as as opposed to them contributing to our one-time recovery fund exactly so if i could clarify a little
Speaker 2
50:46
bit myself members the public is still
covered by something that would be similar to the surety bond but instead of buying it from insurance companies the board established a fund that the auctioneers paid into and once that fund reached a certain amount then we didn't have to buy the insurance anymore and it has saved this is an example of a board that has saved its licensees more money than it has
Speaker 90
51:12
cost them go ahead elaborate thank you well and that that's true and it enables us to uh you know that recovery fund is simply to for our uh the public to recover from if they are
damaged if an auctioneer decides he's going to keep 100 of the commission uh then we can't find him then we're able to for that party to recover up to a certain amount and we've never hit the limit we've never uh we've never run out of money we have been able to help a lot of aggrieved parties and i expect that this next hearing will be hitting that recovery fund to make someone near whole again as well right and we the auction industry uh handles billions of dollars
every day i mean just the automobile industry alone is is it's huge and then there's everybody else uh you know you've got people that are part-time auctioneers and you've got people like myself that are full-time 100 in the auction business uh so we've got a whole plethora of different degrees of activity in the auction industry but we the auctioneers handle billions of dollars worth of people's other people's money on a daily basis and they need to be looked out
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
52:36
after thank you are there any other questions all right seeing none if there
are recommendations to come forward you will be notified to be at our next meeting thank you very much thank you so much for coming forward and for the reports thank you all all right um Arkansas Department of Health radiation control section if you will come to the table and this is exhibit d2 members
if you'll state your name for the record and then you're recognized to proceed Thank you,
Speaker 115
53:29
Madam Chair, members. My name is Chuck Thompson. I'm an attorney with the Department of Health. Connie Melton, Branch Chief.
Speaker 114
53:37
Okay, you may proceed with your report. I appreciate you all having us
Speaker 115
53:46
here today to present the, basically what it's called in short-term, RAD Tech. This is licensure of those that use radiation modalities and medical equipment. We're talking about x-rays, some nuclear medicine, things of that nature. You have in front of you our reports regarding our licenses. Those licenses, there's six of them. Some are more full in scope.
Others are more limited scope. It gives the licensees an opportunity to take just what they need and leave the rest so that you don't have overabundance of regulation, but you do ensure the public safety. we've came about as a result of act 1071 of 1999 the legislature saw that that the public health and safety needed to be needed to be insured when we're talking about radiation as we all know radiation is very dangerous and it can be very dangerous can be very beneficial but also very
dangerous if not used properly we have 4,721 licensees as of last count part of the department oversees the program. However, we are advised by the Medical Ionizing Radiological Licensure Committee. I'm sorry, that's a mouthful. We'll call it the Miracle Committee in shorthand around the department. They are made up of 10 members, nine of them appointed by the governor. One is
the designee by the Secretary of Health, Dr. Smith, who designates someone to appear to serve on that committee um they are practitioners uh regarding these kind of technologies out in the out in the community um they come up with um standards um they're well they i'm sorry they recommend standards for the board of health to adopt and they also take action on licensees disciplinary actions on licensees um if need be and those actions are ratified by the board of
health I've Connie Melton with with me here she may be able to answer some questions that I can't answer but in but I'd love to
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
55:55
take some okay are there any questions regarding this report any
questions I don't see any questions thank you thank you madam
chair if If there's any recommendations, we will be notified to come before our next committee in January.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, members. Thank you. Thank you for the report. All right. Okay. Again, members, I'm going to go through seeing none. Is there any other business to come before the committee? All right. so members for this month these two reports that we've just looked for if there are any recommendations they should be turned in by january 3rd to the staff they are distributed to the members on january 6th and the entities will be notified and then they will be discussed
on january the 13th also on january the 13th we will have these two entities come before us the Arkansas State Board of Acupuncture-Related Techniques and the Arkansas Fire Protection Licensing Board for their input on our action today. And moving forward, we will make sure that that happens at the same time. And when we do go to any further recommendations, again, those will be brought before the committee at that time
in September, October, November, and we will vote on them just like we did during the task force on tax
reform all right any other questions everybody clear on what we're supposed to be doing okay thank
y'all for coming today merry christmas we are adjourned
Agenda
A. Call to Order
B. Comments by the Co-Chairs: Senator Missy Irvin and Representative Richard Womack
C. Recommendations Regarding Occupational Authorizations Heard at the November 12, 2019, Meeting
D. Review of Reports from Occupational Authorization Entities
E. Other Business
F. Adjournment
Documents
Speakers
Speaker 2
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
Senator Cecile Bledsoe
Unverified
Matt Gilmore
Unverified
Representative Vivian Flowers
Unverified
Speaker 14
Speaker 39
Senator Trent Garner
Unverified
Speaker 11
Speaker 23
Representative John Payton
Unverified
Representative Bruce Cozart
Unverified
Representative Megan Godfrey
Unverified
Speaker 82
Speaker 85
Speaker 90
Speaker 92
Speaker 95
Speaker 96
Representative Marcus E. Richmond
Unverified
Speaker 103
Speaker 104
Speaker 106
Speaker 115
Speaker 114