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2012 AMHCA Annual Conference
July 19-21, 2012
Orlando, Florida
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American Mental Health Counselors Association
801 N. Fairfax Street, Ste. 304
Alexandria, VA 22314
www.amhca.org

Dear Members,

Mental Health Counselors have been lobbying Washington for several years to become providers for Medicare reimbursment. It is a travesty that we are not on par with Social Workers in this area. The House of Representatives suppors our interest but the Senate has been the challenge. Now there is Good News! A bill is being presented that we need to support. Please read the forwarded message below. I have personally learned that Senators and Representatives are very interested in public opinion and pay attention to calls and emails. I urge you to take a few minutes to make this wrongful state of affairs right, for us and future generations of our profession. I did!

Thanks,
David Renouf, LCMHC
President, NHMHCA

You can call your Senator at the Capitol and advise her to support a bill which will allow Mental Health Counselors to bill Medicare. I just called, it was very painless and took only 2 minutes! We need mental health counselor coverage to be part of the Medicare package-and this represents a prime opportunity to achieve our long-sought goals.

Please take a moment to call or e-mail your U.S. Senators and ask them to cosponsor the Seniors Mental Health Access Improvement Act (S.604). This legislation will improve Medicare beneficiaries' access to outpatient mental health care in a cost-effective manner, by establishing coverage of highly-qualified LPCs.

TAKE ACTION

Call your senators!

1. Call 202-224-3121 (the main Capitol switchboard).
2. Ask to be connected to the office of one of your senators.
3. Once connected, ask to speak with the health legislative assistant.
4. Ask his or her boss to co-sponsor S.604.

E-mail your senators!

1. Type your U.S. Senator's name into an Internet search engine.
2. Go to his or her Web site.
3. Use the "Contact" function (typically in the upper right hand corner of the home page) to send an e-mail urging cosponsorship of S.604.

NHMHCA opposes this bill on the following grounds:

1. The bill as proposed goes a step too far in that it not only attempts to define scope of practice for psychologists, but limit scope of practice for all other mental health disciplines. It might be fair for psychologists to define what they do, but it is unfair, and in fact we believe psychologists are unqualified, to define scope of practice for Mental Health Counselors, Clinical Social Workers, Marriage and Family Therapists, and Pastoral Counselors.
2. The right to work is an issue. Our members are licensed professionals that have practiced for decades, and this bill would limit and in some circumstances could take away a mental health counselor’s ability to sustain a practice.
3. The financial issues are unclear. If the Board of Mental Health Practice loses licensees, then it loses their revenue. This means by definition (since the board is self sustaining) licensing fees for remaining professionals under the board (i.e.: NHMHCA members) would have to increase dramatically. Since no financial impact statement was provided, we can’t know the financial impact of this proposal, but it will be significant to us.
4. At present a consumer complaint against a licensed mental health professional is handled by a single board. Having multiple boards (psychologists, Board of Mental Health Practice, and MLADAC) adds an unreasonable burden on the consumer to know where to file a complaint. Consumer interests seem best served by a multidisciplinary board.

We are asking our Membership who agree with this position to contact their Senator and Representative before Tuesday and ask them to oppose such legislation. Below are Legislators who are on the Executive Departments and Administration Committee. We can email all members of the legislative committee by using the email address HouseExecutiveDepartmentsandAdministration@leg.state.nh.us

Here are the members of the committee, in case anyone knows any of them:

John Sytek (r)	Russell Day (r)	Kenneth Gould (r)
Calvin Pratt (r)	Lawrence Perkins (r)	Steven Winter (r)
Spec Bowers (r)	Peter Hansen (r)	Mark Proulx (r)
Randall Whitehead (r)	Peter Schmidt (d)	Maurice Pilotte (d)
Jean Jeudy (d)	Daniel Sullivan (d)