Tell the Biden Administration to Protect Access to Psychological ServicesPlease join our largest ONE APA advocacy campaign this year to strengthen access to and promote equity in mental health services.
Psychologists need to weigh in on an annual Medicare proposal with important implications for the nation’s entire mental health system. Specifically, we are responding to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) proposed rule for the 2024 Physician Fee Schedule (PFS). Each year, this sets the benchmark for how health insurance programs cover and reimburse for specific services. The PFS also sets the standard for how new and emerging forms of treatment are covered.
We ask everyone representing the field of psychology – not just clinicians, but applied psychologists, researchers, students and educators – to send a message to CMS to show a unified front on behalf of the field. Our action center will provide you with a message that you can personalize and submit directly to CMS in less than 2 minutes.
This year’s proposal contains important proposals that need your support to become a reality – they will help promote access to mental health services, strengthen our ability to address patient trauma, respond to population health needs and more. These include:
There are also several proposals that CMS will need to revise to improve population health and health equity. These include reimbursement for Community Health Integration services and Social Determinants of Health Assessments and increasing the work values for psychotherapy services to be more inclusive of services provided by psychologists. Additional details are available on our action center.
Your participation makes a big difference! Last year, psychologists represented over half of all messages submitted nationally on the 2023 PFS. Your combined voices brought critical issues to CMS’ attention, which led to a number of favorable proposals in this year’s proposed rule. Please help us continue that success this year – send a message today!
Katherine B. McGuire, MS |
