Secretary of State Jim Condos announces updated fee structures for licenses in four of the 45 professions the Office of Professional Regulation (OPR) oversees. Each year, OPR reviews the costs of each program and adjusts its fees accordingly.
Licensing fees for Nursing Home Administrators and the Psychologists will see significant reductions. Chris Winters is the Director of the Office of Professional Regulation, the division of the Secretary of State’s office supporting the regulatory programs for 45 professions and 55,000 licensees. According to Winters, ‘If our budget analysis reveals that our revenue from licensing fees is more than the costs of our public protection efforts, we lower the fees. This year, we are able to reduce fees for two professions.’
Funeral Directors and Accountants will see increases. ‘Each profession has its own separate budget by law,’ said Winters. ‘In some instances, a large number of disciplinary cases or shrinking numbers of licensees make fees go up. Sometimes it’s simply that fees have not been increased for several years and need to be adjusted for the rising costs of things like office space and health care.’
According to Secretary Condos these changes are in keeping with his priorities of making improvements in efficiency across all divisions of the Secretary of State’s office. ‘We are thrilled to be able to make significant reductions to both the Nursing Home Administrator and the Psychology license fees. I credit our OPR division with streamlining processes and working hard to provide excellent service in these programs at the most affordable costs possible.’
Condos adds, ‘We continue to strive for more effective and efficient delivery of services by improving our business processes and leveraging the latest technologies to get the job done. This includes the important public protection work being done by the Office of Professional Regulation.
The Secretary of State’s Office of Professional regulation protects the public through the licensing and regulation of 45 professions and nearly 55,000 licenses. In addition to ensuring that all licensees are qualified to practice their respective professions, OPR investigates and prosecutes complaints from the public about unethical or incompetent practitioners. For a list of the professions regulated and more information about licensed professionals in Vermont, please visit the Secretary of State’s website at www.sec.state.vt.us.
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