VoterVoice Instructions and Resources for State Advocacy Leaders

Below is a sample action alert you copy into your action alert system (VoterVoice) and tailor to send to your memberships.

APA has provided SPTAs with VoterVoice accounts to send out action alerts. For your convenience, please click here for a tutorial on how to send an action alert using VoterVoice. If you have additional questions on using this resource, please contact Bryant Robinson. 

Deadline to Comment: September 13, 2021

Take Action to Protect Reimbursement, Telehealth and Audio-Only Services [THIS IS A SUGGESTED SUBJECT LINE]

Click here to join thousands of your colleagues and add your voice to help protect psychological services.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicare Services (CMS) is proposing a reduction in payment to psychologists by 3.89% in 2022. Additionally, CMS is proposing to reimburse telehealth and audio-only services at a reduced rate after the COVID-19 public health emergency ends.

We are asking everyone representing the discipline of psychology - whether practitioner, scientist, student, or educator - to make comments to CMS as part of a single effort on behalf of the field. This proposal will not only impact practitioners’ bottom line, but the resulting trickle-down effect will lead to reductions in mental and behavioral health services provided to those who are most in need. [INSERT EXAMPLES OF WHAT REDUCTIONS COULD MEAN TO YOUR STATE HERE.] Because Medicare’s payment policies often serve as the benchmark for private insurance and other programs, these changes ultimately will affect EVERYONE, not just providers and patients enrolled in Medicare.

A significant portion of the 2022 proposed rule includes provisions to increase access to audio-only and other telehealth services beyond the end of the current public health emergency, including in Rural Health Clinics and Federally Qualified Health Centers. [INSERT EXAMPLES OF WHAT THE EXTENSION COULD MEAN TO YOUR STATE HERE.]

While these proposals by CMS represent a win for mental health, psychologists must continue the fight to ensure they are enacted as policy. [INSERT STATE ASSOCIATION NAME] and psychologists have fought hard to get this far, and now more than ever, all of us must weigh in to keep these changes in place.

You have until Monday, September 13, 2021 by 5:00 PM EDT to make your voice heard. 

For additional information, please visit  APA's Action Center for the CY22 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule.