Kentucky DOs celebrate behavioral health advocacy win

Over the summer, the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, which regulates primary care centers in the state, released a proposed definition of behavioral health professional. The definition establishes licensure requirements for the services provided by primary care centers and included psychiatrists who were board-certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, but left out psychiatrists who are board-certified by the American Osteopathic Board of Neurology and Psychiatry.

If that definition was made final, osteopathic psychiatrists would not have been on the cabinet’s list of behavioral health professionals qualified to provide services at primary care centers in the Bluegrass State. After learning this, the Kentucky Osteopathic Medical Association, the American College of Osteopathic Neurologists and Psychiatrists and the AOA sprang into action to request that the omission of osteopathically board-certified psychiatrists be corrected.

The cabinet honored the request and updated the proposed rule, which became a final rule last month.

“This is an important win for osteopathic psychiatrists in Kentucky, who will now be recognized on equal footing as their MD counterparts,” says Nick Schilligo, AOA associate vice president of state government affairs. “The AOA and its affiliate organizations will continue to monitor state proposals to ensure that osteopathic physicians have the ability to provide care to patients in need.”