September 26, 2023

Please take a moment to submit a comment on the proposed rule to make the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act more enforceable. You may use the template below or write your own. Comments are due on October 2, 2023.

To read the document visit https://www.regulations.gov/document/EBSA-2023-0010-0001.

To submit a comment visit https://www.regulations.gov/commenton/EBSA-2023-0010-0001.

Template:

Subject: Re: 0938-AU93 1210-AC11 1545-BQ29 Requirements Related to the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act

Dear Secretary Becerra, Assistant Secretary Gomez, and Deputy Commissioner O’Donnell;

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the Requirements Related to the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) proposed rule. I write as a licensed clinical social worker who has noticed increased difficulty for patients to find coverage for mental health and substance use (MH/SUD) treatment.

It is quite unfair that mental health and substance use treatment is still not covered at parity with medical/surgical care after the initial rules for the 2008 MHPAEA were delayed until 2014 and are still not covered at parity almost 10 years later.

Please finalize the following specific proposals WITHOUT EXCEPTION:

We urge the Departments to consider penalties when plans ignore these consequences.

Please make these changes to eliminate barriers to care and ensure that everyone has the same access to mental health and substance use benefits as they do physical health benefits.

Thank you again for the opportunity to comment.

As always, let me know when you have submitted your comments.

- Laura Groshong, LICSW, CSWA Director of Policy and Practice

August 10, 2023

Please visit https://jswve.org/volume-20/issue-1/item-03/ for an editorial written by our Director of Policy and Practice and Board President. 

August 2023

Please visit the CSWA Position Papers page to view the Position Paper on Artificial Intelligence and Psychotherapy.

July 29, 2023

For the past year, I have been working on a document with NASW on Clinical Social Work Standards. A draft of this document has been released for public comment. I hope all CSWA members will take a look at it and offer your comments. You can find it at https://www.socialworkers.org/Practice/Clinical-Social-Work/Practice/clinical-social-work-standards-draft-forum2. The comment period is open until September 15, 2023.

This is kind of a condensed version of the Private Practice in Clinical Social Work: A Reference Manual, which I also participated in developing with NASW, released in 2021.

Please send me your thoughts as well.

- Laura Groshong, LICSW, CSWA Director of Policy and Practice

July 12, 2023

Good news! On July 7th, 2023, Governor Mike Parson signed Senate Bill 670 and Senate Bill 157 making Missouri the first state to enact the Social Work Licensure Compact. This is a milestone development in supporting the mobility of licensed social workers.

SB 670 was sponsored by Senator Travis Fitzpatrick and Senator Lauren Arthur, and SB 157 was sponsored by Senator Rusty Black.

The Social Work Licensure Compact seeks to increase public access to social work services, provide licensees with opportunities for multistate practice, support relocating military families, and allow for expanded use of telehealth technologies. Currently, the model compact legislation is available for other states to introduce and enact like Missouri. Thus far there have been nine other states that have introduced: Utah, Kentucky, Vermont, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Ohio.

How is the Social Work Compact progressing in your state?

If you have not reached out to your legislators to let them know about the Compact, please start the process now. You can find the materials to use on the Compact Information page on the CSWA website.

Please let me know when you have 1) a pending or passed bill in your state, 2) a legislator who is willing to sponsor the bill, 3) if you need assistance in finding a legislator to sponsor the Compact bill, and/or 4) have talked to NASW about working together to get the Compact going.

Let me know when you have any information on the above issues.

- Laura Groshong, LICSW, CSWA Director of Policy and Practice

June 29, 2023

By Laura Groshong, LICSW, Director, Policy and Practice

Here are two issues which I hope you will all address with your members of Congress and your state legislature.

For Members of Congress:

For State Legislatures:

Please let me know when you have sent messages to Congress and members of your state legislatures. Thanks for your help.

June 20, 2023

Looking for a way to be more involved? Organizations that Offer Support for Trans People

To follow up on our Position Paper released in April, please find resources below that may be helpful in promoting efforts to block anti-trans bills, notably relative to the provision of gender-affirming care.

https://www.acludc.org/en/cases/hinton-v-district-columbia-challenging-department-corrections-policy-discriminatorily-housing

https://www.aclu.org/legislative-attacks-on-lgbtq-rights

https://www.them.us/story/orgs-fighting-back-anti-trans-legislation

https://www.npr.org/2022/11/28/1138396067/transgender-youth-bills-trans-sports

https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2023/06/16/anti-trans-laws-mental-health

https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/06/politics/anti-lgbtq-plus-state-bill-rights-dg/index.html

Barsky, A. E. (2023, June 16). Ethics Alive: Urgent Alert – “Some states have banned gender-affirming care for transgender minors. What are our responsibilities?” The New Social Worker.

https://www.socialworker.com/feature-articles/ethics-articles/urgent-alert-states-banned-gender-affirming-care-social-workers-responsibilities

Please let us know if you have other resources that we can share with CSWA members. CSWA will continue our efforts to oppose anti-trans legislation and other harmful practices.

June 8, 2023

Below are the materials to use to begin lobbying for the creation of the Social Work Compact. They are hopefully self-explanatory but let me know if you need any further information or direction. Please start the process in the next couple weeks.

Many thanks,

Laura Groshong, LICSW, CSWA Director of Policy and Practice

Background on SW Compact 6-23

LCSW Compact - Lobbying 6-23

SW Compact - Bullet Page 2023

June 2, 2023

Here is some clarifying information about Medicare’s requirement that patients that are being seen through telemental health must have an in-person session every six or twelve months.

The language from Medicare is as follows (yellow outline is mine):

Telehealth includes certain medical or health services that you get from your doctor or other health care provider who's located elsewhere (or in the U.S.) using audio and video communications technology (or audio-only telehealth services in some cases), like your phone or a computer. You can get many of the same services that usually occur in-person as telehealth services, like psychotherapy and office visits.

Through December 31, 2024, you can get telehealth services at any location in the U.S., including your home. After this period, you must be at an office or medical facility located in a rural area (in the U.S.) for most telehealth services.

You can get certain Medicare telehealth services without being in a rural health care setting, including:

In short, diagnosis and treatment of mental health disorders will be covered by traditional Medicare until at least 12/31/24 without an in-person session. Audio only treatment will be covered “in some cases” so more guidance is needed on what the cases are that will be covered.

Treatment overseen by Medicare Advantage, or commercial insurers, may or may not require in-person sessions, and may or may not cover telemental health or audio only treatment.

I hope this clarifies the situation for now. Let me know if you need more information.

- Laura Groshong, LICSW, CSWA Director of Policy and Practice

May 25, 2023

Here is a clarifying announcement from CMS about coding and requirements for in-person meetings. Most of this information was sent last month. There is coding information about audio only which should be followed. Though the information is for rural health clinics it also applies to private practice elsewhere.

The information can be found at https://www.cms.gov/files/document/se22001-mental-health-visits-telecommunications-rural-health-clinics-federally-qualified-health.pdf.