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Guest Article: Oregon Volunteers Team Up With NBCC for Medicare Push
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Over the past few months, NBCC has been working with a group of volunteers from the Josephine and Jackson County Area Agencies on Aging in Oregon. Their work has put them in direct contact with Medicare beneficiaries who are in dire need of mental health care and cannot access mental health counselors. They identified The Mental Health Access Improvement  Act as legislation that would solve the problem and reached out to NBCC to see how they could advocate for its passage. As part of their efforts, they met with Rep. Greg Walden's (R-OR-2) district staff about the issue and were instrumental in getting the Psychotherapy Networker article on the issue published.
Following is an article from John Curtis, one of the volunteers who is extremely passionate about this issue:
By John Curtis
Advocacy Chair, Rogue Valley Council of Governments, Senior and Disability Services (Area Agency on Aging)
As part of her job description, Laura O'Bryon, the Director of our Area Agency on Aging (AAA),networks with various providers serving seniors in rural southern Oregon. At a 2017 meeting, her attention was drawn to the plight of Medicare beneficiaries who cannot find mental health treatment. She sought more information from the Jackson County Mental Health Division Manager and presented this issue at an AAA Senior Advisory Council meeting. The issue was then assigned to the AAA's Senior Advisory Committee's Advocacy Committee to study and explore ways to remedy the problem.
The committee struggled, first to understand the complexity of the information and then to create solutions. Ideas such as waivers and telehealth services were kicked around. In researching telehealth legislation,the Mental Health Access Improvement Act was discovered. Contact was made to the sponsor's policy legislative aide who put us in touch with the congressman's proponent who directed us to the National Board for Certified Counselors. NBCC has been extremely helpful to our committee, providing information and clarity, attending meetings by phone, coaching us in preparation for legislator meetings, and encouraging us to reach out to our sister AAAs around the country and inform their advocates of this legislation's importance. Hopefully, these bills become law during the 116th Congress.
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Urgent Action Needed to Support Medicare Coverage for Counselors
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The Mental Health Access Improvement Act (S. 286/H.R. 945) has been introduced in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, which would allow mental health counselors to treat Medicare beneficiaries.
Medicare is the largest health insurer in the country, with over 44 million beneficiaries. Americans over 65, as well as anyone who receives Social  Security disability benefits, are eligible for the program. Taken together, these populations are at great risk of mental health issues.
The core sponsors of the bill, Senators John Barrasso (R-WY) and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Representatives John Katko (R-NY) and Mike Thompson (D-CA), are once again leading the bipartisan effort to have this legislation passed.
NBCC, along with the Medicare Mental Health Workforce Coalition, has been working with the legislators to find additional co-sponsors and promote the legislation in Washington. The Medicare Mental Health Workforce Coalition is comprised of NBCC, the American Counseling Association, the American Mental Health Counselors Association, the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, the National Council for Behavioral Health, Centerstone, the National Association for Rural Mental Health, and the National Association of County Behavioral Health & Developmental Disability Directors.
A crucial part of this process is ensuring the bill has as many co-sponsors in Congress as possible. The more co-sponsors this legislation has, the more likely it is to be included in a large health care-related package that Congress could consider.
NBCC needs your help in this effort! Use NBCC's Grassroots Action Center to contact your legislators and tell them to co-sponsor this legislation. We have prewritten text prepared, but we urge our Grassroots Network members to personalize their message by describing their qualifications and the need for mental health treatment in their communities. We also urge you to take the time to both write and call your legislators in order to have the biggest impact. We appreciate your time and support!
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Update: Wyoming Addictions Legislation Fails
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Proposed amendment legislation (Senate File 56) in Wyoming regarding requirements for Certified Addictions Practitioners (CAP) has failed to pass the Senate. The legislation proposed by Wyoming's Joint Labor, Health and Social Services Interim Committee would have allowed addictions practitioners to be certified based on experience rather than education standards. Normally, people seeking to become a CAP in Wyoming must have a baccalaureate degree.
The amendment was suggested by a legislator on behalf of Gateway Foundation Corrections, a contractor hired by the Wyoming Department of Corrections to provide substance abuse counseling in state prisons. The amendment only applied to people seeking to become a CAP, a type of certification in Wyoming. The amendment was offered as a way of easing a shortage of addictions providers in Wyoming.
Multiple amendments to SF 56 were introduced, and the final version would have required an applicant to have a baccalaureate degree in a human behavioral discipline from a regionally accredited institution, a baccalaureate-level equivalency in addiction therapy, or a current certification as a certified addictions professional assistant with not less than  two thousand (2,000) hours of supervised worked experience. The amendment would have allowed 2,000 hours of supervised work experience to be substituted for the education requirement.
In January, NBCC submitted a letter of opposition to the legislation because the proposed amendment would weaken the educational standards for licensing of addictions professionals, allowing a person without formal education to provide clinical services to the public. NBCC does not support weakening preparational standards at the expense of public protection.
In a last-ditch effort to pass legislation, an additional amendment proposed the creation of the Certified Criminal Justice Professional and Certified Criminal Justice Professional Assistant to practice only within the criminal justice system. This amendment also addressed reciprocity standards for Licensed Addictions Therapists and Certified Addictions Practitioners, making it easier for an out-of-state licensure applicant with a licensure or certification in good standing for not less than two years and a substantially similar scope of practice to be granted a license in Wyoming.
The various amendments were opposed by the Wyoming Counseling Association (WCA), the Wyoming Association of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Centers (WAMHSAC), the American Association of State Counseling Boards (AASCB), and NAADAC, the Association for Addictions Professionals.
After multiple amendments and debate, SF 56 failed on the Wyoming legislature Senate floor.
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