AOTA has been working alongside advocates across the country to help increase the number of occupational therapy practitioners providing mental and behavioral health services in our country. Now, we have a powerful champion in Congress: Representative Tim Kennedy (D-NY), an occupational therapist himself, who is leading the charge on this issue alongside Representative Zach Nunn (R-IA).

The Occupational Therapy in Mental Health Parity Act, H.R. 4037, would ensure that Medicare beneficiaries with a mental health diagnosis have access to occupational therapy services by requiring the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to publish guidance reiterating that someone with a mental or behavioral health diagnosis can receive occupational therapy services – billed through the OT CPT© codes – under Medicare.

By requiring CMS to provide education and outreach to stakeholders about occupational therapy services for a person with a mental health or substance-use disorder, this bill would help Medicare recipients more readily access occupational therapy services as part of their plan of care and decrease denials for these services.

The language from the OT Mental Health Parity Act was included in a larger bill last Congress, S. 3430, the Better Mental Health Care, Lower-Cost Drugs, and Extenders Act, which passed out of a key Senate Committee two years ago.  This means that the bill could be included in an end-of-year package of bills. But we need to know there is support for its inclusion; the best way your elected officials can show support is by cosponsoring the bill.

Write to your Members of Congress today and ask them to co-sponsor H.R. 4037, the Occupational Therapy Mental Health Parity Act.