Physician Direction of Mental Health Clinics

This Community Services Board operates in a very rural area of the Commonwealth.  Outpatient therapy is one of the core services that our CSB offers.  It is a service that often times prevents the need for more intensive and more restrictive services.  Requiring a physician to provide oversight, including conducting a "face-to-face visit with the individual, prescribe the type of care provided, and if services are not limited by the prescription, periodically review the need for continued care,"  would place extreme financial and workforce development burdens on providers.  In an area that is impoverished, and in an ongoing drug epidemic, placing such extreme requirements will restrict the areas ability to provide quality, lesser restrictive treatment to our population.