H.B. 586

I have always had an issue with my Board Order (see here for an explanation of a Board Order) being public. I had always just been incredibly private about my mental health condition--only my parents and brother knew--so, when my Board Order was made public, I felt betrayed and vulnerable. I felt like opening up about my mental health condition myself was the only way to take control of the situation. A lot of good came out of opening up, but it was definitely not something planned. Parts of me still wish the information was private. I had not really come to terms with it myself before it was made public and that is hard. That is a feeling that I did not want anyone else in my situation to go through.

I had emailed the Senator for my district about creating a bill to amend the part of the Code that makes Board Orders public. I never heard back. I simultaneously had emailed the Director of the DHP with my concerns. I got an email back about 4 days ago from the Director of the DHP that explained that a bill was already making it's way through the General Assembly about increasing the confidentiality of Board Orders. However, it won't make Board Orders completely confidential. The bill has already passed the House of Delegates and will be going before the Senate for voting soon. The bill is House Bill 586. The only problem that I find with it is that the bill does nothing retroactively. The Board Orders already public will remain public exactly as they are now. I am considering asking for a bill be created to allow for information to show progress in treatment on the licensee's part to be added to the Order and Notices already public on a given licensee. Most licensee's participating in HPMP (again, see the previous post on Health Practitioner's Monitoring Program) are in for 5 years and I am not even sure after that time frame that the Order disappears from public view. A lot can happen in 5 years-- a lot can happen in a day, a week, a month, a year....let alone 5 years. I do not think it is right that the Board makes this type of information public and gives no update on the treatment progress on the licensee. It is like a story without an ending. I know personally I am nowhere close to the person I was three and a half years ago, but looking at my Order/public information you would not know that.

I am all about maintaining public safety but I never understood how making a licensee's personal health information contributed in a meaningful way to safety. I think it spreads a lot of unnecessary fear. Plus, the act of making one's mental health information public due to safety concerns yet issuing them a license kind of contradicts itself. When the situation is reversed and I am on the receiving end of the care and not giving it, I personally do not care what a healthcare provider has health wise as long as they are competent (by competent I mean knows what the hell they are doing, not impairment) and they are licensed for their job.