Two dozen House Republicans have called on the Illinois Department of Financial & Professional Regulation to evaluate how it handles behavioral health license applications.
The 24 lawmakers wrote in a letter last week to agency Secretary Mario Treto that they have heard from providers in their districts about issues with clinicians and staff obtaining their licenses.
Those include instances where individuals have waited months for updates on their license status or been told their application was “lost” and needed to be resubmitted.
The lawmakers said the issue is of particular importance due to the demand for behavioral health services, from those struggling with opioid addictions to the nationwide mental health crisis.
“The issues these professionals are dealing with as a result of the failures at (the agency) are causing delays in employment, loss of employment opportunities, job vacancies, which in turn leave those most in need of critical mental healthcare without services,” the letter said.
The lawmakers requested more information on what the “core issues” are that are causing delays in licensure.
A spokesman for the department said the average licensing time has increased this year due to an “unprecedented increase” in the number of applications for professional licensure. For instance, applications for nursing licenses are up almost 300 percent, and applications for speech-language pathologists have increased 60 percent. The agency is looking at improvements to accomodate the rise.
During Gov. JB Pritzker’s tenure, the department has more than doubled the number of processors to review professional licensure applications and implemented an online portal for almost all professions, which has cut average licensing times from 10 to 12 weeks to four to five in many instances, the spokesman said.