I.The executive director of the office of professional licensure and certification shall establish and collect all license, renewal, and reinstatement fees, as well as any necessary administrative fees for each license type and professional regulatory board administered by the office. Such fees shall be sufficient to produce estimated revenues up to 125 percent of the total operating expenses for the office, as determined by averaging the operating expenses for the office for the previous 2 fiscal years. If the office denies the issuance of a license, renewal, or reinstatement to any applicant, any fee shall be retained as an application fee. A licensee possessing a license in good standing may, if to the best of the licensee's knowledge the licensee is not the subject of an ongoing inves
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I. The executive director of the office of professional licensure and certification shall establish and collect all license, renewal, and reinstatement fees, as well as any necessary administrative fees for each license type and professional regulatory board administered by the office. Such fees shall be sufficient to produce estimated revenues up to 125 percent of the total operating expenses for the office, as determined by averaging the operating expenses for the office for the previous 2 fiscal years. If the office denies the issuance of a license, renewal, or reinstatement to any applicant, any fee shall be retained as an application fee. A licensee possessing a license in good standing may, if to the best of the licensee's knowledge the licensee is not the subject of an ongoing investigation or disciplinary action, surrender their license and receive a pro-rated refund in accordance with rules adopted by the office pursuant to RSA 541-A.
II. There is hereby established the office of professional licensure and certification fund into which the fees collected under paragraph I shall be deposited. The fund shall be a separate, dedicated, nonlapsing fund, continually appropriated to the office of professional licensure and certification. Moneys in the fund shall be used to pay all costs and salaries associated with the office, and any remaining funds in a biennium shall be used for capital expenditures related to the operation of the office of professional licensure and certification. At the close of each biennium, any funds in excess of $3,000,000 shall be used to reduce licensing and certification fees.
III. There is hereby established a dedicated, nonlapsing fund to be known as the New Hampshire health professionals' program administration fund for the administration of the professionals' health program, including the professionals' health program in RSA 329:13-b, the alternative recovery monitoring program in RSA 326-B:36-a, and the impaired pharmacist program set forth in RSA 318:29-a, with a fee charged to licensees at the time of initial licensure, renewal licensure, or reinstatement of licensure, for the board of medicine, board of dental examiners, pharmacy board, board of nursing, board of veterinary medicine, board of psychologists, board of chiropractic examiners, board of mental health practice, midwifery council, board of registration in optometry, board of podiatry, board of licensed dietitians, and board of licensing for alcohol and other drug use professionals, not to exceed 125 percent of the actual cost of providing the services. Other health and technical professions boards may be added to the program at the same annual fee per licensee. The moneys in this fund shall be continually appropriated to the office.
IV. The office of professional licensure and certification shall be responsible for the financing of any interstate compact joined by the state that affects a profession governed by a board listed in RSA 310:2. Such financing shall be from funds deposited in the office of professional licensure and certification fund.
V. The office of professional licensure and certification shall report biennially by each July 1 on how the funds were expended over the previous biennium. The office shall forward the report to the president of the senate, the speaker of the house of representatives, the chairs of the house and senate executive departments and administration committees, the state library, the governor, and applicable boards, and shall make the report available online.
VI. The office of professional licensure and certification shall provide to the department of health and human services, state office of rural health, licensure information necessary to implement the primary care workforce pursuant to RSA 126-A:5, XVIII-a.
VII. All boards, councils, and commissions within the office of professional licensure and certification shall notify the public of any public meeting no less than 14 calendar days prior to the meeting, unless the chair of the board deems it prudent to hold a public meeting without sufficient notice under this section. In such instances, meetings shall be noticed in accordance with RSA 91-A. All governmental records, as defined in RSA 91-A:1-a, III, distributed to the board, council, or commission for the meeting shall be available to the public no less than 7 calendar days prior to the meeting, provided the governmental records do not contain information exempt from disclosure under RSA 91-A:5 or other applicable law. The chair of the board, council, or commission shall add items to the agenda within 7 calendar days of a meeting if, at the chair's discretion, the public's interest in the board addressing the matter outweighs the public's interest in timely access to governmental records associated with the new agenda item. In such circumstances, governmental records shall be available to the public as soon as reasonably practicable. If it is not practicable to make the records available to the public at least one day prior to a meeting, then paper copies of governmental records associated with the new agenda item shall be available at the meeting location upon request, provided the governmental records to be considered have undergone legal review to identify information exempt from disclosure. In such instances, materials associated with the new agenda item shall undergo legal review and be made available to the public within 7 calendar days of the public meeting or in accordance with RSA 91-A when the chair deems it prudent to hold a public meeting without sufficient notice under this section. This paragraph shall not apply to emergency meetings conducted pursuant to RSA 91-A:2; emergency hearings conducted pursuant to RSA 541-A:30, III or RSA 310:12, IV; disciplinary and non-disciplinary adjudicative or remedial proceedings conducted pursuant to RSA 310:10; and, unlicensed practice hearings conducted pursuant to RSA 310:13.
VIII. All boards, councils, and commissions within the office of professional licensure and certification shall provide an opportunity for spoken comment from the public, virtually or in person, at public meetings, in a manner established by the board, council, or commission chair. This paragraph shall not apply to emergency hearings conducted pursuant to RSA 541-A:30, III or RSA 310:12, IV; disciplinary and non-disciplinary remedial proceedings conducted pursuant to RSA 310:10; and unlicensed practice hearings conducted pursuant to RSA 310:13.
IX. All boards, councils, and commissions within the office of professional licensure and certification shall provide an opportunity for the public to submit written comments on matters before the board, council, or commission, in a manner established by the board, council, or commission chair, within 10 days of the public meeting or in accordance with RSA 91-A, as appropriate under this section. This paragraph shall not apply to emergency hearings conducted pursuant to RSA 541-A:30, III or RSA 310:12, IV; disciplinary and non-disciplinary remedial proceedings conducted pursuant to RSA 310:10; and unlicensed practice hearings conducted pursuant to RSA 310:13.