Medicare Advocacy for the Counselor Advocate Matthew C. Fullen Medicare reimbursement for counselors would expand older adults’ access to mental health services and increase counselors’ professional opportunities.
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What is professional advocacy in counseling?
Medicare Advocacy for the Counselor Advocate Matthew C. Fullen Medicare reimbursement for counselors would expand older adults’ access to mental health services and increase counselors’ professional opportunities. To enhance advocacy efforts, the author reviews Medicare’s current role in meet -
Does Medicare cover counselors and psychologists?
Opinions about responsibility for Medicare advocacy and current engagement in professional advocacy on the issue were examined. A total of 49.3% of …
What is ACA’s advocacy program?
Licensed professional counselors’ experiences indicate that current Medicare provider regulations interfere with mental health care accessibility and availability for Medicare-insured populations. Implications for advocacy are discussed.
What if counselors don’t advocate for their clients?
Apr 23, 2014 · “The justification was based on Medicare’s refusal to include counselors as legitimate mental health providers who deserve to be reimbursed,” he explains. “The state pointed to this regulation and asked why it should reimburse counselors if the national Medicare system wasn’t.”
Why is advocacy important in counseling?
Advocating for all clients means that counselors will help not just by talking about their clients' presenting issues, but by ensuring that they have access to the resources necessary to meet their needs, he explains.Apr 23, 2014
Why advocating on behalf of the profession is an important role for professional counselors?
Helping others understand the impact of our work and the ripple effect that counselors have on their communities ultimately influences the profession in various ways. Increasing awareness of counseling's value can help reduce stigma associated with mental illness and mental health issues.Jun 3, 2020
Can therapists bill Medicare?
Medicare currently recognizes psychiatrists, psychologists, clinical social workers and psychiatric nurses for outpatient mental health services. However, Medicare does not reimburse professional counselors for behavioral health services.
What is the difference between counseling and advocacy?
As nouns the difference between advocate and counselor is that advocate is someone whose job is to speak for someone's case in a court of law; a counsel while counselor is a professional who counsels people, especially on personal problems.
Why is advocacy an important competency for community counselors?
Advocacy-oriented counselors recognize the impact of social, political, economic, and cultural factors on human development. They also help their clients and students understand their own lives in context. This lays the groundwork for self-advocacy.
How can a client advocate effectively?
You can advocate for your patients in a variety of ways, including these ten examples:Educate the patient. ... Update the entire team. ... Be present. ... Ensure safety. ... Double-check documentation. ... Give proper care. ... Offer resources. ... Listen to your patient.More items...•May 6, 2021
Does Medicare cover mental health?
Medicare Part A (Hospital Insurance) helps cover mental health services you get in a hospital that require you to be admitted as an inpatient. You can get these services either in a general hospital or in a psychiatric hospital that only cares for people with mental health conditions.
How many therapy sessions does Medicare cover?
A person's doctor recommends 10 physical therapy sessions at $100 each. The individual has not paid their Part B deductible for the year. They will pay the Part B deductible of $203. Part B will pay 80% of the expense after the $203 deductible payment.Mar 6, 2020
Who is Medicare through?
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is the federal agency that runs Medicare. The program is funded in part by Social Security and Medicare taxes you pay on your income, in part through premiums that people with Medicare pay, and in part by the federal budget.
What ethical responsibilities does a counselor have for advocacy?
The primary responsibility of counsel- ors is to respect the dignity and promote the welfare of clients. Counselors create, safeguard, and maintain documentation necessary for rendering professional services.
What is advocacy in professional ethics?
Legal Ethics An advocate is accountable to his client and should be honest and loyal towards them. Besides honesty, he should exercise his duty in the interest of his client, respect the court and seta of justice, respect the laws of the land, and adhere to the other professional rules and ethics.Mar 9, 2021
How might you as a counseling professional advocate for the career and educational development of your clients?
Attend community and municipal meetings where career and workforce development issues are being discussed, testify at local hearings on legislation that has a direct impact of your clients, or help a client who is willing to testify, write an article for your local newspaper, for NCDA publications.Apr 1, 2008
How many people are covered by Medicare?
Medicare is the primary source of health insurance for 60 million Americans, including adults 65 years and over and younger individuals with a long-term disability; the number of beneficiaries is expected to surpass 80 million by 2030 (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2019; Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, 2015).
How many Medicare beneficiaries have supplemental insurance?
Most Medicare beneficiaries (81%; Kaiser Family Foundation, 2019) have supplemental insurance, including 22% who have both Medicare and Medicaid. Medicare beneficiaries who are dually eligible for Medicaid may be particularly vulnerable to the MMHCG.
What is accessibility in mental health?
Accessibility refers to factors like funding for mental health services and providing transportation support to attend appointments. Availability is used to describe the number of mental health professionals who provide services to older adults within a particular community.
When was mental health parity passed?
For example, mental health parity laws were passed in 2008 to ensure that Medicare coverage for mental illness is not more restrictive than coverage for physical health concerns (Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008, 2008) .
What is interpretive phenomenological analysis?
This study was executed using interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) to guide both data collection and analysis. The study focused on the experiences of Medicare-ineligible mental health professionals as they navigated interactions with Medicare beneficiaries who sought mental health care from them . By using a hermeneutic approach to understand their unique perspectives on this phenomenon, we aimed to remain consistent with the philosophical approach of IPA, which is idiographic in nature (Smith, Flowers, & Larkin, 2009). This study received approval from the Western Institutional Review Board.
Is Medicare a reimbursement for LPCs?
Regarding advocacy on behalf of clients, these findings suggest that Medicare reimbursement for LPCs is urgently needed in order to provide Medicare-insured populations with access to mental health services. Currently, efforts to change Medicare regulations through the legislative process have support from a broad range of professional interest groups, many of which comprise the Medicare Mental Health Workforce Coalition (Medicare Mental Health Workforce Coalition, 2019). Further, there is currently legislation under consideration in both the U.S. Senate (S. 286; Mental Health Access Improvement Act, 2019) and U.S. House of Representatives (H.R. 945; Mental Health Access Improvement Act, 2019) that would include LPCs and LMFTs as Medicare-eligible providers. As of November 2019, these bills had 29 and 96 cosponsors, respectively (U.S. Congress 2019a, 2019b). Despite these efforts, more than half of counseling professionals recently surveyed had not participated in advocacy related to Medicare reimbursement (Fullen, Lawson, & Sharma, in press-b). Therefore, additional work is needed to educate members of the counseling profession about the consequences of current Medicare mental health policy on clients from underserved populations. Fullen et al. (in press-a, in press-b) describe several strategies that can be used to strengthen advocacy efforts among members of the counseling profession, including counselor educators, master’s and doctoral students, and practicing counselors.
How long are semi structured interviews?
Individual interviews were conducted by a single member of the team who digitally recorded and transcribed verbatim the interview procedure. Consent was obtained from the participants and pseudonyms were used to ensure participant confidentiality. Also, participants were given the option to stop the interview at any time. The elapsed time of each interview ranged between 47 and 66 minutes. The semi-structured interview protocol began with two initial questions to frame the interview: (a) Have you ever had to refer a potential client to another counselor/therapist/agency because of not being able to accept their Medicare insurance coverage? and (b) Have you ever established a working relationship with a client who later transitioned to Medicare insurance coverage?
What is advocacy in counseling?
Advocacy is a concept that can evoke visions of protesters and picket lines, phone banks and information booths, and maybe even knocking on doors and accosting strangers on the street. But at its most basic level, advocacy means to help or assist, and isn’t that the essence of counseling?
What is the Kentucky Counseling Association?
At the Kentucky Counseling Association (KCA), advocacy has taken the form of nurturing and supporting the next generation of counselors. Over the past few years, KCA, a branch of the American Counseling Association, has launched a series of initiatives focused on counselors entering the profession.
Who is Rita Chi-Ying Chung?
Rita Chi-Ying Chung, an international expert on multicultural and cross-cultural counseling, discovered that truth at the beginning of her career when she began working with refugees, a population forced to navigate many cultural barriers when arriving in a new county.
What can a counselor do for a child?
The counselor could assist in securing dental care for the other child by checking with the dental community to find a dentist or clinic willing to provide low-cost or pro bono work. Many of today’s counselors are actively advocating for clients, causes, social change and even the profession itself.
Who is Fred Bemak?
For Fred Bemak, the academic program coordinator for counseling and development at GMU, advocacy and counseling are fundamentally intertwined. He was an advocate even before he became a counselor, and that experience shaped how he viewed his training and the counseling profession.
Who is Keith Myers?
Keith Myers, a licensed professional counselor in Atlanta, has always been interested in the military. It’s a bit of a family tradition. His father was in the Navy during World War II, and both of his brothers have also served.
Who is Kevin Feisthamel?
The accidental advocate. When ACA member Kevin Feisthamel began his job at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation’s Melon Center for multiple sclerosis (MS), he knew little about the disease. He had just finished a counseling internship that focused on health psychology and had developed a strong interest in neuropsychology.
Who introduced the companion bill?
The companion bill, H.R. 3899, is subsequently introduced on the House side by Rep. Brad Carson (D-OK). The same provision is additionally included in an omnibus Medicare mental health bill (S. 690 and H.R. 1522), but does not make it out of committee.
What is the ISMICC?
The President’s Interdepartmental Serious Mental Illness Coordinating Committee (ISMICC), an advisory body composed of federal officials and behavioral health experts, recommended inclusion of counselors in the Medicare program. please feel free to download and read the full report. 2017.
How many people are covered by Medicare?
Medicare is the nation's largest health insurance program, covering over 43 million older Americans (65 or older), and approximately 10 million Americans with disabilities. The program was established in 1965.
Who introduced the Mental Health Access Improvement Act of 2021?
In the Senate, the Mental Health Access Improvement Act of 2021, S. 828 was introduced by Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI).
Who introduced H.R. 432?
In the House of Representatives, the Mental Health Access Improvement Act, H.R. 432 was introduced by Representative John Katko (R-NY) and Mike Thompson (D-CA). With the passage of this legislation, Medicare beneficiaries nationwide will have access to much needed mental health treatment by licensed professional counselors.
What is HR 945?
Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, Jr’s (D-NJ) opening remarks described HR 945 as “bipartisan legislation that would improve access to mental health providers in the Medicare program by covering mental health counselor and marriage and family therapist services.”.
When was HR 945 passed?
Mental Health Access Improvement Act. September 9, 2020. House Committee Passes Mental Health Counselor Medicare Legislation. Today, the House Energy and Commerce Committee approved HR 945 in an historic vote supporting Medicare coverage for the counseling profession. While this legislation has passed both the House and Senate twice over the years, ...
Why is advocacy important for counselors?
Advocacy activities serve to expand counselors’ presence at the community, state and national levels, and counselors should not underestimate the importance of supporting the growth of the profession through actions taken in their local communities. In addition, professional advocacy activities include those aimed at positively promoting ...
What is advocacy in counseling?
Professional counseling organization advocacy is just one piece of the puzzle. The counseling profession never would have evolved if not for the work of individual counselors, and nowhere is that as obvious as with regard to legislative advocacy. Generally speaking, legislators care most about what their constituents think. In fact, individual counselors working in unison with their legislators have facilitated the bulk of the legislative changes that impact our practice.
What is professional advocacy?
Professional counselor advocacy involves taking action to promote the profession, with an emphasis on removing or minimizing barriers to counselors’ ability to provide services.
Who is the President of the American Counseling Association?
This past year, American Counseling Association President Heather Trepal commissioned a task force to focus on the topic of professional advocacy. This article is part of our response to that charge.
What can a school counselor do?
Similarly, school counselors can forge connections with their state board of education members. Professional counselors can help policymakers , members of their local communities and members of their social networks better understand the importance of counseling and the benefit we bring to our clients and communities.
What is the foundational element of professional advocacy?
A foundational element of effective professional advocacy is a clear professional identity. Unless we know who we are, we cannot communicate that message to stakeholders. ACA, CSI, NBCC, CACREP and other professional counseling organizations have helped to steer counselors toward a shared professional identity. Development of the ACA Code of Ethics, support of CACREP educational and training standards, and the adoption of competencies set forth by ACA divisions are among the ways our profession has worked to define and support counselor identity.
What is the ACA?
Guided by its 2018-2021 strategic plan and framework, ACA’s advocacy efforts on behalf of the profession involve both legislative and nonlegislative means.