PRINTER'S NO. 1640
No. 1401 Session of 1991
INTRODUCED BY LLOYD, GEIST, CORRIGAN, HERMAN, FAJT, FARMER AND
ALLEN, MAY 15, 1991
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON PROFESSIONAL LICENSURE, MAY 15, 1991
AN ACT
1 Requiring certain information to be solicited in connection with
2 the consideration of legislation by the General Assembly; and
3 providing for the licensing, registration and certification
4 of members of an occupation or profession.
5 The General Assembly of the Commonwealth hereby enacts as
6 follows:
7 Section 1. Short title.
8 This act shall be known and may be cited as the Sunrise Act.
9 Section 2. Definitions.
10 The following words and phrases when used in this act shall
11 have the meanings given to them in this section unless the
12 context clearly indicates otherwise:
13 "Committee." The committee in the Senate and the House of
14 Representatives to which proposed legislation to regulate
15 occupations and professions is referred.
16 Section 3. Legislative findings.
17 The General Assembly finds that regulation should be imposed
18 on an occupation or profession only when necessary to the
19 protection of the public interest. The General Assembly further
1 finds that establishing a system for reviewing the necessity of
2 regulating an occupation or profession prior to enacting laws
3 for such regulation will better enable it to evaluate the need
4 for the regulation and to determine the least restrictive
5 regulatory alternative consistent with the public interest.
6 Section 4. Sunrise evaluation report.
7 After October 1, 1990, any professional or occupational group
8 or organization, any individual or any other interested party
9 which proposes the regulation of any unregulated professional or
10 occupational group shall submit a Sunrise Evaluation Report
11 containing the following information to the committee, no later
12 than 30 days after the legislation has been introduced in the
13 General Assembly. The sunrise evaluation report shall consist of
14 the following:
15 (1) The name, address, telephone number and
16 organizational affiliation of the person or persons
17 designated to represent the applicant.
18 (2) What is the occupational or professional group for
19 which the applicant is seeking regulation?
20 (3) Identify the associations, organizations and other
21 groups representing the practitioners in this Commonwealth
22 and estimate the number of Pennsylvania practitioners in each
23 group. Are members of the public sponsoring regulatory
24 programs? Are other groups supporting the effort? If none,
25 why?
26 (4) Describe the functions performed by members of this
27 professional or occupational group. Note which functions are
28 unsupervised and supervised and by whom. Is there a high
29 degree of independent judgment required of practitioners? How
30 much skill and experience are required in making these
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1 judgments? In addition, indicate functions which are similar
2 to those performed by other groups and identify those groups.
3 How do the functions performed by this group vary from the
4 other group's functions? Is the group prevented from
5 rendering services for which its members are qualified by
6 "scope of practice" statement of another group?
7 (5) Describe the client group or groups with which this
8 professional or occupational group deals. Are they members of
9 the general public who lack knowledge necessary to evaluate
10 qualifications of those offering services? Are there
11 institutions or qualified professionals who have the
12 knowledge to evaluate qualifications.
13 (6) Describe and provide examples of typical work
14 settings of this group.
15 (7) Document the public's need or demand for the
16 services of this group, and note the basis for your
17 conclusion.
18 (8) Are you proposing licensure, certification,
19 registration or another type of regulation? Have alternatives
20 to licensure been considered such as the regulation of
21 business employer rather than individual practitioners (e.g.,
22 licensing restaurants rather than cooks or waiters)? Under
23 licensure, it is illegal for anyone to engage in a profession
24 or occupation without a license, and only persons who possess
25 certain qualifications are licensed. Certification recognizes
26 persons who have met certain educational and experiential
27 standards to engage in a profession or occupation, although
28 anyone may use the professional or occupational title. Under
29 registration, any person may engage in a profession or
30 occupation, but he or she is required to submit information
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1 concerning the location, nature and operation of the
2 practice.
3 (9) What would be the impact of the proposed regulation
4 on the supply of practitioners in the profession or
5 occupation, including the degree to which existing
6 practitioners would be precluded from practice?
7 (10) To what degree would the proposed regulation either
8 directly or indirectly affect the cost of goods or services
9 provided by the professional or occupational group?
10 (11) What is the applicant seeking to gain through
11 regulation of the professional or occupational group?
12 (12) Indicate how the public would be protected by
13 regulation of this occupational group and how regulation will
14 help the public identify qualified practitioners. Is the
15 public seeking greater accountability of the professional or
16 occupational group?
17 (13) Within the usual practice of this profession or
18 occupation, document the physical, emotional or financial
19 harm to clients resulting from failure to provide appropriate
20 service, or erroneous or incompetent service.
21 (14) Do clients have access to this professional or
22 occupational group directly or are they referred by members
23 of another professional or occupational group?
24 (15) Are clients routinely referred to practitioners in
25 this group? If so, give examples of who refers clients and
26 for what reasons.
27 (16) Does the current lack of regulation of this group
28 make its practitioners ineligible for third party insurance
29 payments or Federal grants?
30 (17) Describe the minimum competencies necessary to
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1 enter this profession or occupation:
2 (i) What standards are proposed for granting
3 credentials?
4 (ii) Are all standards job related?
5 (iii) How do these standards compare with those of
6 other states? If they differ, can the difference be
7 justified?
8 (iv) Are there training and experience requirements?
9 Are the requirements of equal duration when compared with
10 other states? Does training include supervised field
11 experience? If so, is an additional experience
12 requirement justified?
13 (v) Are there restrictions on where or how
14 experience may be acquired? Explain why restrictions
15 exist.
16 (vi) Will alternative routes of entry be recognized?
17 Will applicants who have not gone through prescribed
18 training or experience or both be eligible for licensure
19 or certification? Will licensure or certification in
20 another state automatically allow an individual to be
21 credentialed in this Commonwealth?
22 (vii) Will applicants for licensure, registration or
23 certification be required to pass an examination? Does an
24 examination already exist? Does it meet professional and
25 legal testing standards? If no test exists, who will
26 develop it and how will development cost be met?
27 (viii) Is there a grandfather clause in licensure?
28 Why is it necessary? Will such practitioners be required
29 to take a test at a later date?
30 (18) If appropriate, list institutions and program
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1 titles offering accredited and nonaccredited programs in
2 Pennsylvania to prepare practitioners for entry into this
3 profession or occupation. What is the cost of completing
4 these programs? If programs are not available in
5 Pennsylvania, what is the cost of out-of-State programs?
6 (19) What assurance will the public have that the
7 individuals credentialed by the Commonwealth have maintained
8 their competence?
9 (i) Will the license or certificate carry an
10 expiration date?
11 (ii) Will renewal be based solely on payment of fees
12 or require periodic examination, per review, evidence of
13 continuing education or other procedures for continued
14 competence?
15 (iii) What grounds will there be for suspension or
16 revocation of credentials?
17 (20) Is this professional or occupational group
18 affiliated with an association which sets and enforces
19 standards? If so, please explain the process and standards.
20 Has the occupational group established complaint handling
21 procedures for resolving disputes between practitioners and
22 the public? How effective has this been?
23 (21) What Federal and State laws currently apply to the
24 practice of those in this professional or occupational group?
25 (22) What type of private credentialing is or could be
26 available as an alternative to government regulation? Has the
27 occupational group established a code of ethics and to what
28 extent has it been accepted and enforced?
29 (23) Has a nongovernmental certification program been
30 established to assist the public in identifying qualified
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1 practitioners?
2 (24) Could the use of applicable statutes or existing
3 standards solve problems? Would strengthening existing
4 statutes or standards deal with the problem? Please address:
5 (i) Use of unfair and deceptive trade practice laws.
6 (ii) Use of civil laws such as injunctions and cease
7 and desist orders.
8 (iii) Use of criminal laws such as prohibitions
9 against cheating, false pretenses and deceptive
10 advertising.
11 (iv) Use of existing standards such as construction
12 codes and product safety standards.
13 Section 5. Analysis and evaluation.
14 No later than 30 days after receipt of the sunrise evaluation
15 report, the committee shall request the Bureau of Professional
16 and Occupational Affairs to conduct an analysis and evaluation
17 of the sunrise evaluation report. The analysis and evaluation,
18 which shall be based upon the criteria listed in section 6(b),
19 shall be completed and an analysis and evaluation be submitted
20 to the committee in a time period set by the committee.
21 Section 6. Committee duties.
22 (a) Public hearings.--After receiving the report required by
23 subsection (c) and prior to the next legislative session, the
24 committee shall conduct public hearings to receive testimony
25 from the public, the Commissioner of the Bureau of Professional
26 and Occupational affairs, and the group, organization or
27 individual who submitted the proposal for regulation to the
28 committee.
29 (b) Determination.--In such hearings, the determination as
30 to whether such regulation of an occupation or a profession is
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1 needed shall be based upon the following considerations:
2 (1) whether the unregulated practice of the occupation
3 or profession clearly harms or endangers the health, safety
4 or welfare of the public, and whether the potential for the
5 harm is easily recognizable and not remote or dependent upon
6 tenuous argument;
7 (2) whether the public needs, and can reasonably be
8 expected to benefit from, an assurance of initial and
9 continuing professional or occupational competence; and
10 (3) whether the public can be adequately protected by
11 other means in a more cost-effective manner.
12 (c) Findings.--The committee shall report its findings and
13 recommendations to the General Assembly, the findings and
14 recommendations shall include a finding as to whether regulation
15 of each profession or occupation is necessary for the public
16 health and safety and, if regulation is necessary,
17 recommendations as to what is the least restrictive type or
18 regulation consistent with the public interest and whether
19 regulation would result in the creation of a new agency or could
20 be implemented more efficiently through an existing agency.
21 Section 7. Effective date.
22 This act shall take effect immediately.
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