DO YOU WANT TO BE INCLUDED IN THE GOVERNMENT’S COVID-19 STIMULUS PACKAGE?
Counselors must not be the ‘forgotten’ profession!
Help your profession break the cycle that leaves counselors out of important congressional policy conversations. The world is in a health crisis and your profession and your clients are suffering unnecessarily, due to a lack of federal policy that supports your—and their—needs.
The American Counseling Association needs you to be the change and the influence. You have the expertise to empower your legislators with the information they need to include you in policy decisions.
ACA is calling on the professional counseling community to unite and fight for what is right. We need 50,000 individuals or more to TAKE ACTION TODAY.
Don’t delay! Your voice mattered yesterday, it matters today and it will matter tomorrow. If you do not speak up, the assumption on Capitol Hill is that you have everything you need.
Your profession needs your voice. Speak up now!
The American Counseling Association continues to educate Congress about the needs of counselors. Now that the nation is in a state of emergency due to COVID-19, Congress is asking to hear from you.
You gave us your stories highlighting your challenges. At the request of Congress, we now need you to take one more step to reach out to your elected representatives. Here are some of the FACTS your legislators need to hear:
- Licensed Professional Mental Health Counselors (LPMHCs)
account for one third of the mental health-care workforce,
according to the Health Resources and Services Administration, an agency
of the Department of Health and Human Services.
- Barriers to care limit access to mental health services for our nation’s most vulnerable individuals in
underserved populations. As a result, access to mental health services is
denied despite LPMHCs’ availability to help.
- The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services last
updated the provider list in 1989. Counselors have been denied the
opportunity to help mental health clients for more than 30 years.
The Legislative Solution
Ask Congress to:
- Include H.R. 945, The Mental Health Access Improvement Act,
in any future COVID-19 response package.
· WHY: The
nation has a mental health provider shortage. Professional counselors are
available to close the provider gap and are critical to the health of our
country, during and after the COVID-19 crisis.
- Contact the House Way and Means Committee and the
Senate Committee on Finance and urge
them to include Licensed Professional Mental Health Counselors in a future
COVID-19 stimulus package.
· Mental
health counselors are eligible to bill Medicaid, Tricare and private insurance,
but are left out of providing mental health services to Medicare beneficiaries.
· As of
January 2020, opioid treatment programs (OTPs) are the only programs that can
bill Medicare when services are rendered by a mental health counselor. There is
a critical need for counselors in these areas—and outside of them, as well.
· Clients
have been known to turn to medications containing opioids when there are gaps
in services, potentially leading to additional mental health concerns,
including thoughts/attempts at suicide and increased trauma, stress and
anxiety.
- Personalize your message by informing Congress about
the ways you and your clients are being affected.
· Send a
message using the ACA Voter Voice platform or call the House Ways and Means
Committee at 202-225-3625 and the Senate Committee on Finance at 202-224-4515.
· Please
also make a short video (no longer than 140 seconds), post it to your Twitter
feed and tag @WaysMeansCmte, @Senfinance, @SpeakerPelosi, @RepRichardNeal,
@RepKevinBrady, @ChuckGrassely and @RonWyden. Don’t forget to include
#CounselorsMatter and tag ACA by using @CounselingViews.
For additional information, call ACA at 1-800-347-6647 or e-mail advocacy@counseling.org.
