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A week ago we e-mailed you about the Medicare conference committee beginning its work, and the importance of a serious, and sustained, grassroots advocacy effort to maintain the counselor/marriage and family therapist coverage provision included in the Senate's Medicare prescription drug bill, S. 1. That e-mail focused on our top priority targets -- House conferees on the measure (who are from the states of AR, CA, CT, FL, LA, MI, NY, and TX), and secondly, Senate conferees (from AZ, IA, LA, MT, OK, SD, TN, UT, and WV). The conferees and the text of the earlier alert are listed under the "Public Policy" section on the AMHCA website at
http://www.amhca.org
This e-mail will describe what you can do if you do NOT live in one of these states. This is the largest fight AMHCA/ACA has been involved in, and a victory could bring in roughly $300 million over the next ten years to mental health counselors in reimbursements for which they are not currently eligible.
ACTION NEEDED:
All AMHCA/ACA members who live OUTSIDE of those conference committee states are encouraged to contact their members of Congress to express support for Medicare reimbursement of Mental Health Counselors. Again, since the Medicare conference is expected to take several months, this is only the first in several calls we will be requesting from you. Since congressional staff may attempt to wrap up smaller details of the legislation early in the process, we need your help NOW, as well as later.
Please call both of your state's Senators and your representative. To learn the names of your members of Congress, visit
http://www.congress.org and enter your zip code under "Elected Officials." Both Senate and House offices can be reached by calling the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and asking for your Senators or Congressman. THE MESSAGE FOR SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES IS SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT, SO PLEASE READ ON FOR DETAILS.
As always, be sure to leave your name and postal address with whomever you speak with.
SUGGESTED MESSAGE FOR SENATORS:
"I am calling to ask the Senator to cosponsor S. 310, the Seniors Mental Health Access Improvement Act, which would expand Medicare reimbursement to include licensed professional counselors and marriage and family therapists. S. 310 was passed by the Senate as an amendment to the Senate Medicare prescription drug bill, and would be an easy way for the Senator to show [his/her] support for improving mental health services for our state's Medicare beneficiaries. This provision, sponsored by Senator Craig Thomas, is an extremely cost-effective way of helping improve access to qualified mental health professionals."
SUGGESTED MESSAGE FOR REPRESENTATIVES:
"I am calling to ask the Congressman to contact the Medicare conference committee to express support for the Senate Medicare bill's provision establishing coverage of state-licensed professional counselors and marriage and family therapists for medically necessary outpatient mental health services. The provision, sponsored by Senators Thomas and Lincoln, would be a cost-effective way of helping improve Medicare beneficiaries' access to qualified mental health professionals."
Thank you again for any help you can provide. Our profession has never been so close to reaching this important goal. Again, expect more alerts and updates over the coming weeks, and please feel free to contact any of us at the numbers/e-mail addresses below should you have any questions, concerns, or feedback.
Beth Powell -- American Mental Health Counselors Association --
www.amhca.org;
800-326-2642, x105;
bpowell@amhca.org
Dara Alpert -- American Counseling Association
www.counseling.org;
800-347-6647;
dalpert@counseling.org
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