Dear Committee Member:
This email is being sent on behave of the Employee Assistance Professionals Association (EAPA) of Greater New Orleans Executive Board. EAPA-GNO is a non-profit chapter of the International Employee Assistance Professionals Association ( http://www.eapassn.org/public/pages/index.cfm?pageid=1 ). Our chapter is the largest EAPA chapter in the state of Louisiana (http://www.eapagno.org/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1 ). Prior to Katrina our chapter consisted of 29 paying members and has representatives from several large companies. Last year we estimated we were providing EAP services to over 100,000 workers plus their families in the New Orleans and Louisiana Area.
Our Executive Board is asking you NOT to support Senate Bill 518. The following reflects our concerns and as such feel the bill should not be passed into law::
1) The law would be redundant as national certification is already being provided through the International Employee Assistance Professionals Association.
2) EAP providers for national companies already have a separate credentialing process for each of their respective companies which provide EAP services in Louisiana. The law would create an addition oversight board which would be redundant of services which the International Employee Assistance Professionals Association and national companies already provide.
3) This bill would create an unnecessary financial hardship and an additional financial burden on the professionals who work in the EAP field by:
a). forcing EAP’s who work with national and state Employee Assistance Programs to maintain two certifications and,
b). forcing EAP’s who wish to maintain certification recognized nationally to obtain both certifications.
4) The bill if it becomes law it would prevent “EAP referrals to agencies to whom they are affiliated” which would:
a)       be in conflict with current national EAP companies who contract with individual providers and already have safe guards regulating the EAP referral process.
b)       prevents patients from receiving quality services in areas where clinical services are limited by not allowing EAP’s to refer their patients to agents that they have an affiliations.
c)       be problematic for private and state hospitals who are participating  in an EAP consortiums such as with the state.
We respectively request you take our concerns into consideration and vote NO to Senate Bill 518.
Sincerely,
Stanley L. Denton, LCSW, CEAP, President
Martin Summers, Vice President
Lisa Clark, LCSE, CEAP Treasurer
Scott Embley, LCSW, Secretary
Dianne Barth, LCSW, CEAP, Immediate Past President
Janie Beers, Ph.D., LCSE, Chair Program Committee