Panel Begins Look At Potential Overhaul Of State's Licensing System

A panel of business and industry leaders began a process Thursday of reviewing hundreds of professions licensed by Indiana.  The committee will help lawmakers potentially overhaul the state’s licensing system.

The number of licensed professionals in Indiana – such as accountants, barbers, plumbers, and veterinarians – has increased 38 percent in the past 10 years. There are more than 30 licensing boards and more than 230 licenses.  Legislation passed this year created the Job Creation Committee under the Professional Licensing Agency. 

Executive Director Nick Rhoad says the committee will investigate each licensed profession over the next three years.

“What the Indiana General Assembly has asked us to do is that they have turned to consumers, they have turned to industry leaders, and they have turned to practitioners in the environment and are asking the experts that are out there in the field every day, ‘What should the proper lanes be for the regulatory environment,’” Rhoad said.

He says the review process won’t just be about evaluating whether a profession should be licensed; he says it’s also about helping the Professional Licensing Agency.

“We are still regulating in a way that we have maybe in the '90s but people don’t practice the way they did in the '90s," Rhoad said. "So we’re hopeful that we can find a more efficient way to continue to provide outstanding customer service to the one out of every seven working Hoosiers who are licensed by this agency.”

Rhoad stresses that while the committee will provide recommendations to lawmakers, only the General Assembly can eliminate the requirement that a profession be licensed.