After years of advocacy efforts, mental health counselors will now be recognized as covered Medicare providers. The $1.7 trillion omnibus funding bill signed by Pres. Joe Biden on Dec. 29, 2022, includes provisions which enable counselors to bill directly in Medicare.
Lisa Corbin, PhD, LPC, NCC, director and chair of the MS Counseling program at PCOM, is elated that she and her counseling colleagues now have access to millions of people who are on Medicare and desperately need mental health services.
“Counselors can now help decrease the delay in obtaining counseling services many Medicare patients face by servicing clients on wait lists and billing Medicare instead of having clients pay out of pocket for services that are now covered,” she said.
Medicare, the nation’s largest provider of health insurance coverage, is a federal health insurance program for people 65 years of age and older and others who meet certain eligibility criteria. Prior to the passage of the omnibus package, mental health counselors were not recognized as outpatient mental health services providers.
The American Counseling Association estimates the legislation will give Medicare beneficiaries access to more than 225,000 additional licensed mental health professionals.
Since 2001, the National Board for Certified Counselors, the American Counseling Association and others have worked to promote legislation to add counselors as Medicare providers. These advocacy efforts extended to students in PCOM’s counseling program who, in 2019, lobbied in Harrisburg, PA in support of the Mental Health Access Improvement Act.
Corbin, who was awarded the David W. Hall Advocacy Award in 2020 in recognition of her efforts on behalf of the counseling profession, said advocacy is at the heart of counseling and the MS Counseling program at PCOM.
Students within the MS Counseling program complete an advocacy project that begins during their first term in the program and includes 10-15 hours of community involvement.
“This advocacy project prepares students to advocate for the profession or patients by having them identify a passion they have, learn the relevant laws and other barriers patients are facing, and then create a concrete plan for instituting change,” Corbin explained. “Our goal at PCOM is to create agents of change who have the ability to positively affect change in individuals, locally, nationally and globally.”
As a counselor educator, Corbin said she is excited about being part of a changing landscape in which there is an ever growing constant need for mental health counselors.
“The omnibus act also gives counselors the credit they have so long deserved because this piece of legislation places counselors on the same playing field as our sisters and brothers in the helping profession.”
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