Cross Provincial Practice Guide

• • • Alberta
    • Manitoba
    • New Brunswick
    • Ontario
    • Saskatchewan

We anticipate that more provinces will be signing the Memorandum of Understanding and agreeing to offer this type of license/permit in the future. Check with your primary province to get up-to-date information on participation.

You will be able to provide direct care to those who live in the province where you hold a Cross Provincial Practice registration. You can provide up to 200 hours of client/patient care. This is a sum total of all the direct care hours for all your clients/patients. This is not 200 hours per client/patient.

Your Cross Provincial Practice registration will be valid for 12 months from the date on which you receive your Cross Provincial Practice registration in that province. Your Cross Provincial Practice registration will expire after 12 months.

If you wish to continue practicing in that province, you must re-apply for a new registration.

To be in “good standing” the applicant must:

• • • meet the requirements for continuing competence or quality assurance of the primary province
    • have paid the applicable fees to be registered in the primary province; and
    • not owe any debts to that regulator.

The applicant must not have:

• • • a suspension
    • terms, conditions or limitations
    • a complaint filed against them which is unresolved
    • a Report (applicable to Ontario registrants)
    • an active regulatory investigation
    • an active referral to discipline proceeding
    • unresolved disciplinary or conduct matters that are relevant to cross provincial practice, as determined by the secondary province.

You must ensure you have the appropriate professional liability insurance both in your primary province and for the province where you are seeking secondary registration. You must also ensure whatever insurance you do carry allows for Cross Provincial Practice.

You may not need to obtain separate insurance coverage but check with your existing insurance provider to ensure you are covered in the secondary province and that the amount of coverage meets the secondary provinces requirements. Please note that ACSLPA requires that you hold your own PLI and will not accept employer coverage.

The “Practice Differences Across Provinces: Key Links” chart will direct you to the professional liability insurance requirements for each province.

You are required to track all direct client/patient care hours whether they are provided virtually or in person. This refers to any direct care you provide to the client/patient or to their caregiver or family. For example, assessments, treatments, care via a support personnel would be counted. Similarly, advice you provide to significant others such as the caregivers, family, teachers or other professionals regarding your client/patient would also be counted.

Note: client/patient care hours do not include the SLP or AUD discussing their client/patient with other professionals for general advice regarding intervention with that client/patient.

You must not exceed 200 hours in total of direct care provided to the client/patient and/or to the caregiver or family when you add all the time spent with all your patients. Use the “Client/Patient Care Tracking Form: Cross Provincial Practice”. You must always be prepared to provide this completed form if requested from either the secondary or primary province.

The participating provinces have agreed that you do not need to have a Cross Provincial Practice registration to provide brief help when a client/patient is temporarily in one of the participating provinces.

You can proceed without obtaining a Cross Provincial Practice registration but only If you are providing:

• • • reasonably urgent limited services
    • for no more than a cumulative total of 3 hours
    • across the 12 months
    • to an existing client/patient
• For example, your client/patient may need a hearing aid adjustment to manage a new listening environment they find themselves in while on vacation in another province. Similarly, your client/patient may benefit from a short intervention for managing their fluency in new situations.
• Remember the 3 hours of urgent care is a total amount across all client/patients you may be servicing. You should only provide brief direct care for any single client/patient, and retain the remainder of the 3 hours for any other urgent situations, as opposed to providing 3 hours to 1 patient.

Please note, this ONLY applies to participating provinces. If you wish to provide brief service to a client/patient in a non-participating province, you must contact them directly to see if you must register with them.