The Alaska State Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy Board found that current state law limits what occupational therapists can do for patients. The law prevents therapists from helping patients recover or improve their function. Instead, it restricts them to helping patients cope with existing problems.

Tori Dottere, a board member and occupational therapist, told the Senate Labor and Commerce Committee Tuesday that a 2023 legal opinion revealed the gap in Alaska's occupational therapy statute. The law does not recognize therapists' role in "improving, enhancing, or recovering a patient's function," she said.

"If a therapist were to be very black and white, straightforward, follow the letter of the law provider, then the letter of the law does not define that a therapist should be helping the patient to get better," Dottere said. "They should only be helping them to cope with the deficits that they currently have. And that is different than just basic national standard of care."

House Bill 110 would update Alaska's occupational therapy scope of practice to include rehabilitation and recovery work. This would bring the state in line with federal standards. The committee heard public testimony on the bill but took no action Tuesday.

Haley, a stroke survivor from Savannah who identified herself only by first name, said she was shocked to learn rehabilitation was not part of Alaska's statute. "My number one goal as a patient is getting back to my pre-stroke life and getting my independence back and that includes rehabilitation and not just coping and working around the problem, it is tackling it head-on," she said.

Stephen Salinas, an occupational therapist at Central Peninsula Hospital in Soldotna, said the bill would ensure patients in central Alaska could access care that meets federal standards. Margaret Rutkowski, who has worked on travel contracts in rural Alaska communities including Dillingham, Tustumena, and Soldotna, also supported the measure.

An occupational therapist from Palmer who works with patients across the Mat-Su Valley said House Bill 110 would "significantly improve their access to improved health care" through evidence-based practice.

Dottere explained that the current statute's limitation creates a gap between what Alaska law allows and what occupational therapists are trained to do nationally. The bill would define specific areas within the occupational therapy scope of practice not currently addressed in state law, she said.

The licensing board requested the legal opinion in 2023 after receiving a scope of practice question. That review highlighted the previously unrecognized limitation in Alaska's statute, Dottere said.

The committee set House Bill 110 aside for future consideration. No timeline was given for when the bill might receive another hearing.