Mental health providers in the state say unnecessary and burdensome regulations make it harder for Alaskans to access care. They’re hopeful a recent executive order from Gov. Mike Dunleavy aimed at streamlining regulations across state government will help.
John Solomon, CEO of Alaska Behavioral Health Association, a trade group that represents most behavioral health provider organizations in the state, said excessive regulations on behavioral health services contribute to a bottleneck of care in the state.
“We've asked our organizations, what are the top three reasons you can't see more people? One [reason], for the past three years, has been administrative burden, and that's what this is–all the paperwork and the regulations and things,” Solomon said.
The executive order, enacted in September, requires state divisions to reduce regulations by 25% by the end of 2027 and applies to all divisions in the state.
Solomon said one example of a regulation that may be unnecessary for some patients is that treatment plans must be updated every 90 days. Sometimes that means a patient must see two separate providers every three months just so they can continue long-term medications.
Solomon said some regulations are important and the industry is already governed through licensing, accreditation and ethics. He said because behavioral health care hasn’t always been seen as a part of health care, its regulations evolved to be more complex in Alaska than regulations in the rest of health care. So he said this executive order gives the state a chance to make accessing behavioral health care more like accessing other kinds of health care.
“There's a lot of what I like to kind of think of like cobwebs in regulation,” Solomon said.
He said Alaskans can access behavioral health care like therapy at both medical clinics and community behavioral health clinics, but he said right now, comparable care at community behavioral health clinics faces far more regulatory hurdles.
“If you are having to follow seven pages of rules versus one page of rules, even though you do the same service, that means you're having to do more steps, you're having to submit more paperwork,” Solomon said.
The state is taking public comment suggestions for regulation cuts to behavioral health until 5 p.m. on Oct. 31 and the state Department of Law and governor’s office will oversee the process.
