Fiscal Impact

In Plain English...

Direct costs to the Commonwealth are minimal:  

Participating states pay just $10 per participating psychologist per year, capped at $6000 per year.  That is couch-cushion change.  In fact, the PSYPACT Commission is in the process of lowering those fees, more fully shifting the burden to the participating psychologists.

Each participating state designates one Board member to represent that state on the PSYPACT Commission, which meets twice per year, once in person (for two days) and once via teleconference (for one day).  If a Commissioner chooses to volunteer to be on a committee, those committees typically meet once per quarter, via teleconference.

All costs related to the state Commissioners' participation in the business of PSYPACT (e.g., travel expenses if there might be an in-person meeting), and all other related costs (e.g., insurance, office space, supplies, internet, etc) are covered by PSYPACT (that is, by the participating psychologists).

(Note also that Massachusetts law already requires that Board of Registration members serve without pay -- only administrative staff are compensated by the Commonwealth.)   

Are there any other costs involved?  

No.  Massachusetts already has all of the relevant infrastructure in place.   The Board of Registration of Psychologists already has a publicly-accessible database allowing ASPPB and PsyPact staff to directly verify that a psychologist has both a full and unrestricted license to practice psychology in MA and a clean disciplinary history.  No other manual verification or file review by staff is necessary.

The Commonwealth is also already required by federal law to report all disciplinary actions to the National Practitioner Databank.  Under PSYPACT, the Commonwealth would report these same disciplinary actions directly to ASPPB, and ASPPB would serve as MA's reporting agent to the NPDB.   The amount of work would not change.

Some states have worried about "loss of revenue" to their Boards of Registration, if a psychologist with a license in some other state whose clients' needs would be appropriately met through PSYPACT might choose not to apply for a MA license.  However, this situation would also result in the Board also not having to bear the cost of reviewing their licensure paperwork, which can become very complicated and time-consuming, especially when the psychologist was originally licensed a long time ago and it may be difficult (or even impossible!) for them to get copies of their original paperwork.

Additionally, if a psychologist with a valid MA license has clients whose needs would be appropriately met through PSYPACT, they would not need to burden the MA Board of Registration administrative staff with the task of going into the hard-copy archives, retrieving and preparing official copies of their original licensure paperwork, and sending those copies to the Boards of Registration of every other state where that psychologist might have clients, in order to establish a full license in each of those other states.

This isn't "loss of revenue" -- it's efficiency.  Spending less  time and money dealing with unnecessary and redundant paperwork means that the Board can focus on its far more important tasks: protecting the public from harmful and illegal practice. 

So who does pay?  

The costs are not particularly large in the first place.   And, as is clearly shown in the PSYPACT annual reports, the vast bulk (over 80%)  of the funding for PSYPACT is borne directly by the participating psychologists.   Each psychologist who wishes to apply for PSYPACT credentials pays a one-time fee and annual carrying costs which are similar to the financial costs of applying for and maintaining a single additional state license.  

However, the process of securing and maintaining PSYPACT credentials is far less burdensome to the psychologist than the cost of securing even a single additional state license, in terms of time and cost spent filling out redundant application and renewal paperwork, tracking down ancient records of prelicensure training and supervision, fulfilling and logging records of ongoing continuing education requirements, waiting for state boards to review their applications, addressing any perceived deficiencies or other technicalities, and so on.  The Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards (ASPPB) trusts that all of its member states do their due diligence when issuing licenses  and reporting disciplinary matters.  Although the details of what each state requires for licensure and renewal may not be precisely the same everywhere, all states establish and enforce high standards which conform to the expectations of ASPPB and APA; there are no "backdoor" states in which licenses are blithely handed out to unqualified applicants.

Details of the costs that participating psychologists (not the Commonwealth!) pay:

To engage in telehealth, the psychologist pays an initial fee of $400 and a yearly renewal fee of $100 to ASPPB for the E.Passport, and an initial fee of $40 and a yearly renewal fee of $40 to PSYPACT for the Authorization to Practice Interjurisdictional Telepsychology (APIT), so that's an initial fee of $440 and a carrying cost of $140 per year.

To engage in temporary in-person practice (no more than 30 days per year), the psychologist pays an initial fee of $200 and a yearly renewal fee of $50 to ASPPB for the Interjurisdictional Practice Certificate (IPC), and an initial fee of $40 and a yearly renewal fee of $40 to PSYPACT for the Temporary Authorization to Practice (TAP).  So that's an initial fee of $240 and a carrying cost of $90 per year.

If they establish both credentials, the total cost is $680 initially and $230 per year after that.  

Participation is completely voluntary:  A psychologist may choose to establish either one of these credentials, both, or neither.  The vast bulk of PsyPact participating psychologists only establish telehealth credentials.  According to October 2025 data from PSYPACT, there are 14,672 psychologists currently holding telehealth credentials, and 840 holding temporary in-person practice credentials.

The total turnaround time for documentation review, including establishing both an E.Passport and an APIT (or an IPC and a TAP) is approximately one month, which is much faster than the typical 6-12-month process involved in establishing a full license in a new state.

Does PSYPACT reduce Board oversight?  

No.  MA residents are still fully protected under MA law, and the MA Board of Registration retains the full right to enforce MA law regarding scope of practice, standard of care, and everything else.

Sources:

PSYPACT: Advancing the Interjurisdictional Practice of Psychology 

PSYPACT Commission 2025 Annual Budget Report  

PSYPACT October 2025 Newsletter (has data on numbers of APIT and TAP certificates by state)

How is PSYPACT being used?