clinical social work association

Earlier yesterday I sent you the BetterHelp statement which said that they were ending their connection to CareDash.

Now I am pleased to send you the news that CareDash is backing off their harmful stance toward clinical social workers in private practice, as well. While there are still some problems to be resolved, CareDash has 1) stopped their deliberate confusion about LCSW availability; 2) removed their “book an appointment” option which directed potential patients away from LCSWs who were not part of the CareDash network; and 3) clarified that their information comes from the NPI list of clinicians and has nothing to do with the quality of those clinicians. To see the whole CareDash statement, click HERE.  

I am fairly certain that the outstanding response of CSWA members to the demeaning policies of CareDash had a major impact on their decision to back off their original stance. Thanks to all of you for your great contributions to this effort.

CSWA will continue to insist on the rights of all LCSWs in private practice to have access to all patients who want to see them without interference by any external organizations.

Laura Groshong, LICSW, Director, Policy and Practice  
Clinical Social Work Association  
lwgroshong@clinicalsocialworkassociation.org

Here is a link to an article published today in Bloomberg Law today about the CareDash situation which mentions CSWA:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-08-05/shadow-profiles-from-therapist-directory-spark-startup-backlash?sref=yqJvNODh

Keep sending your complaints to your state consumer protection agencies and the FTC. The original post and template can be found HERE. 

Let me know when you have sent them, as always.

Laura Groshong, LICSW, Director, Policy and Practice  
Clinical Social Work Association  
lwgroshong@clinicalsocialworkassociation.org

 

    July 16, 2022 was the roll-out date for ”9-8-8”, the new US network for people looking for help with suicidality or other emotional crises. This phone number is designed to be used for text or for telephone access to volunteers who will provide initial assistance to callers, then triage them to LCSWs and other licensed clinicians.

      Ultimately, 9-8-8 will become the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (1-800-273-TALK); the new number will be easier to remember and access. This older hotline will remain in effect for an as yet undetermined period of time while 9-8-8 becomes fully operational. 

       There is no question of need: there has been an exponential increase in suicides and suicide attempts since the pandemic began almost three years ago. Here is what LCSWs should know about the implementation of this new system.

Funding

The $400 million set aside in Federal funding for 9-8-8 is about half of what will be needed to fund the services in every state. So far, the only states that have provided the needed state funding are Colorado, Nevada, Virginia and Washington. Nine states have legislation in progress to provide this funding; 37 states have no plan to provide funding. CSWA encourages members to ask their state legislators to find the state funding for 9-8-8 so that it can be fully functional as soon as possible. To see what your state’s plan is for funding 9-8-8, go to https://reimaginecrisis.org/map/.

Current Statistics

How serious is the issue of suicide? Here are the number of suicides in the most recently recorded year, 2020:

• In 2020, the U.S. had one death by suicide about every 11 minutes
• Suicide was the leading cause of death for individuals between ages 10-34 in 2020
• Over 100,000 individuals died from drug overdoses in the nine months from April 2020 to the end of the year

While 2020 actually saw a decrease in suicides from 2019 overall (17.7%, https://suicidology.org/2021/04/02/2020data/), of grave concern is the fact that there was an increase for young adults and BIPOC communities of all ages in 2020 (https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/news/20211103/suicide-rates-2020-cdc) .

More Information

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration has prepared a toolkit to further explain the need for 988. For FAQs and Fact Sheets, go to

https://www.samhsa.gov/find-help/988/partner-toolkit. Also feel free to contact me for more information.

Laura Groshong, LICSW, Director, Policy and Practice

Dear CSWA,

As you know, CSWA has been involved in the development of a Compact which would allow clinical social workers to practice in all states that join the Compact without having to become licensed in individual states. For the past 8 months, Laura Groshong, CSWA Director of Policy and Practice, and I have attended the Social Work Compact Technical Advisory Committee meetings monthly, sponsored by the Department of Defense and Council of State Governments.

A document for the Compact has been created which is now available for review by the public, including CSWA members. I encourage all CSWA members to attend one of the two webinars which will be held on July 30 at noon ET and September 8 at 3 pm ET for more detailed information on the Compact. Keith Buckhout and Matt Shafer of the Council of State Governments will be available to explain the process and answer your questions. Registration for these webinars will be on the website shortly.

Among the issues that will be addressed are:

• What is an interstate compact?
• How do states use interstate compacts?
• How do states join a compact?
• How many states are required for a compact to be in effect?
• What are the benefits of a compact?
• How do compacts preserve state sovereignty?
• Where do states obtain legal authority to enter compacts?
• How are compacts administered and enforced?
• What are the steps in the compact development process?
• How long can it take to implement a compact?
• How are compacts funded?

To review the document before the webinars, go to https://compacts.csg.org/compact-updates/social-work/

To submit comments or feedback on the draft, please fill out the online survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/socialworkcompact

Please let Laura know if you have any questions and watch for an email later this week from our new Administrator, Angela Katona, regarding how to sign up for one of the two webinars.

Kendra Roberson, PhD, LICSW

CSWA President

president@clinicalsocialworkassociation.org

Laura Groshong, LICSW

CSWA Director, Policy and Practice

lwgroshong@clinicalsocialworkassociation.org

CSWA members have expressed concerns about the way that companies like Betterhelp are providing a kind of mental health treatment based on texting. The lack of direct contact is cause for concern. The asynchronous nature of Betterhelp limits emotional communication.

A new article from California Healthline written by award-winning journalist Harris Meyer, has just come out and has echoed some of these concerns. The article, “Digital Mental Health Companies Draw Scrutiny and Growing Concerns”, can be found at https://californiahealthline.org/news/article/digital-mental-health-companies-scrutiny-concerns/.

Both Marlene Maheu, PhD, who presented a webinar on telemental health for CSWA, and Laura Groshong, CSWA Director, Policy and Practice, are quoted in the article.

Below is a Letter to Congress on gun violence that CSWA signed on to with 9 other national organizations which was published in USA Today this morning. ~Laura Groshong, LICSW, Director, Policy and Practice, lwgroshong@clinicalsocialworkassociation.org, 6/7/22

The Clinical Social Work Journal (CSWJ) is pleased to announce a call for papers for a special issue called: Life After the MSW. This special issue will be co-edited by the Editor in Chief of the journal, Melissa D. Grady, PhD and Kendra C. Roberson, PhD, the President of the Clinical Social Work Association (CSWA). In this issue we will be seeking manuscripts that offer readers a mix of historical/scholarly information about the topic, as well as concrete and practical information for soon to be and/or recent MSW graduates. The aim of this special issue is to offer practical advice to newer professionals in the field. We hope that the articles within this special issue can be used by faculty members and supervisors who are helping to train new social work practitioners, as well as by the graduates/students themselves. 

Some examples of topics for this special issue could include, but are not limited to issues related to post-masters education, clinical supervision considerations, navigating and/or preparing for the licensure process, practicing clinical social work with a social justice lens, and potential career paths as a clinical social worker.

Interested authors should submit an abstract of no more than 750 words describing the proposed manuscript. Those that are chosen will then be invited to submit full manuscripts that will be between 10-15 pages in length. 

Each abstract should include the following:

• Introduction of the topic AND its relevance to soon to be and/or recent MSW graduates
• How the authors will provide practical information for the intended audience (e.g., bullet lists of areas to consider, tips for accessing information, resources that would be useful for further exploration, pros and cons of the issue, lists of questions that readers could consider for themselves)

In addition to the above, full manuscripts will also require

• Background information on the topic (e.g., historical background, any scholarly information on the topic)
• Expanded practical information section as described above

Deadlines for process:

• Abstracts should be submitted by Oct 1, 2022
• Invitations for full manuscripts will be sent out by Dec 31, 2022
• Full manuscripts will be submitted by Mar 1, 2022

For any questions, please contact Melissa D. Grady at grady@cua.edu or Kendra Roberson at kacey@uw.edu.

I have received a deluge of emails from you about the use of POS “10” for Medicare and other insurers.  This guidance that Medicare has provided about this policy is complicated.

The current guidance from CMS is that:

• POS “11” should be used until the end of the Public Health Emergency, timing of which is currently unknown, even though this is not what the POS “11” is for. 
• And, as of April 4, 2022, there is some variation according to Medicare Administrative Contractors (MACs) about whether or not to move to POS “10” as initially stated by CMS. 
• Check with YOUR MAC to clarify  which POS code is being accepted currently if the patient is being seen through telemental health in their home; for example, technically, if a patient is in their car, the POS code should be “02”. 
• You can find your MAC contact information at the CSWA website under “Clinical Practice”.
• The Medicare Modifier for POS codes is still 95. This may seem counterintuitive as 95 is supposed to be for telemental health but it is the only combination that currently works.

Be sure to check with EACH private insurer for a patient to find out what combination of POS and Modifier are being requested so that claims will not be denied.

I hope this resolves the confusion about POS codes.  Let me know if there are any other questions.

POS Codes as of 4/1/22 – Medicare

There has been some confusion about what Point of Service (POS) Codes should be used for Medicare and other insurers as of April 1, 2022. 

As you know, there were changes to POS codes that were announced as of January 1, 2022 to be “available” for Medicare as of April 1, 2022.  POS “10”, a new POS code for telemental health services that are provided when the patient is in their home, and the LCSW is in their office or elsewhere.  Other POS Codes are “2” which is used when a patient is not in their own home and receiving telemental health services from an LCSW or “11” which is used when seeing a patient in the LCSW’s office.

The Medicare modifier is 95 for any of the above codes.

It appears that the POS 10 is now being used instead of POS 2 for Medicare for reimbursement.  All other insurers, public and private, should be contacted about the POS codes that are required for reimbursement of claims. The same goes for which modifier is being used – check with the individual insurer.

For more information, go to https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Coding/place-of-service-codes/Place_of_Service_Code_Set  If you have other question, contact me at lwgroshong@clinicalsocialworkassociation.org.

There has been some confusion about what Point of Service (POS) Codes should be used for Medicare and other insurers as of April 1, 2022. 

As you know, there were changes to POS codes that were announced as of January 1, 2022 to be “available” for Medicare as of April 1, 2022.  POS “10”, a new POS code for telemental health services that are provided when the patient is in their home, and the LCSW is in their office or elsewhere.  Other POS Codes are “2” which is used when a patient is not in their own home and receiving telemental health services from an LCSW or “11” which is used when seeing a patient in the LCSW’s office.

The Medicare modifier is 95 for any of the above codes.

It appears that the POS 10 is now being used instead of POS 2 for Medicare for reimbursement.  All other insurers, public and private, should be contacted about the POS codes that are required for reimbursement of claims. The same goes for which modifier is being used – check with the individual insurer.

For more information, go to https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Coding/place-of-service-codes/Place_of_Service_Code_Set  If you have other question, contact me at lwgroshong@clinicalsocialworkassociation.org.

Transgender children have been in the crosshairs of conservative groups in the legislature and elsewhere for the past decade.  Amongst legislative attempts to discriminate against them, there have been attempts to ban them from gender-specific bathrooms or from participating in sports consistent with their gender identity.  Support for transphobic attitudes and actions has grown. Now there is an attempt in Texas to lay blame on parents who affirm their child’s gender identity. This bill is one of the most harmful to trans children, but is the tip of the iceberg; there have been over 235 state-based bills that limit the rights of trans children in 2022 (https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/nearly-240-anti-lgbtq-bills-filed-in-2022-so-far-with-most-targeting-trans-people/ar-AAVhMSa) . The current law that has passed in Texas, abhorrently describes parental support of trans children as child abuse; though, for now, it has been placed on hold by a Texas appeals court.

CSWA believes that gender identity is an integral aspect of our intersectional identities and that children’s rights to express their identities, and to participate in everyday activities of childhood, regardless of this expression, should be protected.  LCSWs work with trans-children and adults who have been harmed because their trans identities. To our affiliated colleagues in the Texas Society for Clinical Social Work, we send our support and encouragement to stand strong.  No law can persuade us to ignore our ethical stance on respecting the identity of any individual child, and for parents that support and affirm their children.  Also notable, the Texas law does nothing to prevent the violence directed toward trans BIPOC youth for being themselves. This violence has increased at alarming rates in the last few years.

As reported by Forbes, 30 trans youth were killed in 2020, including 23 that were BIPOC youth. (Forbes, “Transgender America: 30 Killed And Fatally Shot Already In 2020”, 10/2/20, https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiewareham/2020/10/02/30-trans-woman-have-now-been-violently-murdered-in-america-in-2020/?sh=296cb38564a4). The work of groups like GLAAD (glaad.org), the Trans Youth Equality Foundation (http://www.transyouthequality.org/), and the Transgender Law Center (https://transgenderlawcenter.org/) are crucial to educating the public and advocating across multiple domains to prevent transphobic violence and discrimination against trans youth and their parents.  CSWA supports the work of these groups in preventing harm and protecting trans children.