A better structure

Friday, Aug. 1, 2008 | 2:05 a.m.

A proposal to bring the state’s multiple licensing boards together under one department is worthy of consideration by the Nevada Legislature.

There are 22 boards that license and oversee health professionals and at least 20 that govern other professionals who must by law be licensed.

One criticism heard of so many independent boards is that they could become little fiefdoms, rife with conflicts of interest and loaded with political appointees.

Another common criticism is that accountability is lacking among the boards, and that many become more concerned with protecting the professions they oversee than with protecting the public.

Although these criticisms may not always be valid, it is hard to dispute other criticisms, such as that the boards are apt to be underfunded and understaffed, and that their independence means they are not obligated to be consistent with one another in how they carry out their duties.

Criticisms of the boards have not been lost on the Legislative Committee on Health Care, which is accepting suggestions for how they could be better organized. Larry Matheis, executive director of the Nevada State Medical Association, has briefed the committee on a possible new structure that we believe has merit.

He envisions a state “Department of Professions” that could “consolidate the current staffs and current boards into a single administrative and accountable unit.” His research shows that 26 states have adopted this model.

The advantage here is that a well-supervised professional staff could assume the administrative duties now being performed by each board. Duties include application reviews, background checks, complaint processing, fee and fines collections, Web page design — even investigations of complaints. The boards themselves would still exist, and would still make final decisions about the granting of licenses and whether licensees should be disciplined.

We hope the committee works with this idea, because it sounds to us as if it could lead to a more efficient — and more visible — system for overseeing professional licenses in Nevada.