---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT relating to healthcare services and declaring an emergency."
description: "Create new sections of KRS Chapter 344 to define terms; prohibit discrimination against mental health care professionals, mental health care institutions, and ordained ministry for providing protected counseling services; prohibit discrimination against individuals for offering information, training, and referrals for protected counseling services; prohibit discrimination against parents and guardians who consent to their child receiving protected counseling services; prohibit reporting of a mental health care professional or mental health care institution to a hiring or licensing authority solely on the basis that it provides protected counseling services; prohibit a hiring or licensing authority from investigating a mental health care professional or mental health care institution solely on the basis that it provides protected counseling services; establish a civil cause of action for a person injured by a violation; provide that the Act may be cited as the Mental Health Counseling Protection Act; EMERGENCY."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ky"
legislature: "Kentucky General Assembly"
session: "2025RS"
identifier: "HB 495"
citation: "Kentucky HB 495 (2025RS)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Civil Actions", "Effective Dates", "Emergency", "Local Mandate", "Medicaid", "Mental Health", "Personnel and Employment", "Short Titles and Popular Names", "State Agencies"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: []
version_count: 3
action_count: 45
vote_count: 7
first_action: "2025-02-13T05:00:00+00:00"
last_action: "2025-03-27T04:00:00+00:00"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/35f41ddc-f13d-48cc-8701-a2817078ab90"
source_url: "https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/record/25RS/hb495.html"
source_hash: "8eb9f6cde43bbfffe4da60d7b2ba799b58159bb2444cbfe99e7304b678a2911c"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ky"]
---

# Kentucky HB 495 (2025RS) — AN ACT relating to healthcare services and declaring an emergency.

Create new sections of KRS Chapter 344 to define terms; prohibit discrimination against mental health care professionals, mental health care institutions, and ordained ministry for providing protected counseling services; prohibit discrimination against individuals for offering information, training, and referrals for protected counseling services; prohibit discrimination against parents and guardians who consent to their child receiving protected counseling services; prohibit reporting of a mental health care professional or mental health care institution to a hiring or licensing authority solely on the basis that it provides protected counseling services; prohibit a hiring or licensing authority from investigating a mental health care professional or mental health care institution solely on the basis that it provides protected counseling services; establish a civil cause of action for a person injured by a violation; provide that the Act may be cited as the Mental Health Counseling Protection Act; EMERGENCY.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/recorddocuments/bill/25RS/hb495/orig_bill.pdf)
2. **Acts Chapter 107** (committee substitute) — [source](https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/acts/25RS/documents/0107.pdf)
3. **Current/Final** (committee substitute) — [source](https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/recorddocuments/bill/25RS/hb495/bill.pdf)

## Votes

- Final Passage — **67–19** (pass) · lower
- Pass — **77–18** (pass) · lower
- PASS HB 495 W/ scs1 scta1 — **28–6** (pass) · lower
- Final Passage — **78–20** (pass) · lower
- Override Veto Final Passage HB 495 — **31–6** (pass) · lower
- Suspend the Rules — **88–0** (pass) · lower
- Previous Question — **70–18** (pass) · lower

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2025-02-13T05:00:00+00:00** introduced in House `introduction`
- **2025-02-13T05:00:00+00:00** to Committee on Committees (H) `referral-committee`
- **2025-02-21T05:00:00+00:00** to State Government (H) `referral-committee`
- **2025-02-27T05:00:00+00:00** reported favorably, 1st reading, to Calendar `committee-passage`
- **2025-02-28T05:00:00+00:00** 2nd reading, to Rules `reading-2`
- **2025-02-28T05:00:00+00:00** posted for passage in the Regular Orders of the Day for Tuesday, March 04, 2025
- **2025-03-04T05:00:00+00:00** floor amendments (1), (2-title) and (3) filed
- **2025-03-05T05:00:00+00:00** floor amendments (4) and (5-title) filed `amendment-introduction`
- **2025-03-05T05:00:00+00:00** 3rd reading, passed 77-18 with Floor Amendment (4) and Floor Amendment (5-title) `passage, reading-3`
- **2025-03-06T05:00:00+00:00** received in Senate
- **2025-03-06T05:00:00+00:00** to Committee on Committees (S) `referral-committee`
- **2025-03-11T04:00:00+00:00** to Health Services (S) `referral-committee`
- **2025-03-11T04:00:00+00:00** taken from Health Services (S)
- **2025-03-11T04:00:00+00:00** 1st reading `reading-1`
- **2025-03-11T04:00:00+00:00** returned to Health Services (S)
- **2025-03-12T04:00:00+00:00** reported favorably, 2nd reading, to Rules with Committee Substitute (1) and Committee Amendment (1-title) `committee-passage`
- **2025-03-12T04:00:00+00:00** floor amendment (1) filed to Committee Substitute `amendment-introduction`
- **2025-03-13T04:00:00+00:00** posted for passage in the Regular Orders of the Day for Thursday, March 13, 2025
- **2025-03-13T04:00:00+00:00** 3rd reading `reading-3`
- **2025-03-13T04:00:00+00:00** Floor Amendment (1) defeated
- **2025-03-13T04:00:00+00:00** passed 28-6 with Committee Substitute (1) and Committee Amendment (1-title) `passage`
- **2025-03-14T04:00:00+00:00** received in House
- **2025-03-14T04:00:00+00:00** to Rules (H) `referral-committee`
- **2025-03-14T04:00:00+00:00** placed in the Orders of the Day
- **2025-03-14T04:00:00+00:00** House concurred in Senate Committee Substitute (1) and Committee Amendment (1-title)
- **2025-03-14T04:00:00+00:00** passed 67-19 `passage`
- **2025-03-14T04:00:00+00:00** enrolled, signed by Speaker of the House `passage`
- **2025-03-14T04:00:00+00:00** enrolled, signed by President of the Senate `passage`
- **2025-03-14T04:00:00+00:00** delivered to Governor
- **2025-03-24T04:00:00+00:00** Vetoed `executive-veto`
- **2025-03-27T04:00:00+00:00** received in House
- **2025-03-27T04:00:00+00:00** to Rules (H) `referral-committee`
- **2025-03-27T04:00:00+00:00** taken from Rules
- **2025-03-27T04:00:00+00:00** posted for consideration of Governor's veto
- **2025-03-27T04:00:00+00:00** veto overridden `veto-override-passage`
- **2025-03-27T04:00:00+00:00** passed 78-20 `passage`
- **2025-03-27T04:00:00+00:00** received in Senate
- **2025-03-27T04:00:00+00:00** to Rules (S) `referral-committee`
- **2025-03-27T04:00:00+00:00** posted for passage for consideration of Governor's veto
- **2025-03-27T04:00:00+00:00** veto overridden `veto-override-passage`
- **2025-03-27T04:00:00+00:00** passed 31-6 `passage`
- **2025-03-27T04:00:00+00:00** received in House
- **2025-03-27T04:00:00+00:00** enrolled, signed by Speaker of the House `passage`
- **2025-03-27T04:00:00+00:00** enrolled, signed by President of the Senate `passage`
- **2025-03-27T04:00:00+00:00** delivered to Secretary of State (Acts Ch. 107) `became-law`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/35f41ddc-f13d-48cc-8701-a2817078ab90`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Kentucky legislature records).