President's Welcome

Welcome to the PAMHCA website! If you are new to this website, so am I, at least in this capacity as President. At our PAMHCA Board of Directors Meeting during the PCA Conference at State College, PA, I received the reins from our competent now Past-President, Mary Ann Baron, who served so well as our President for the past few years. I will do my best to follow her lead with the support and encouragement from our Board.

What inspires you to work in the counseling field? This is a question that, I am sure, you ponder from time to time. I am sure that it is a question that, spoken or unspoken, is in the mind of those who come to see us. It probably is a question that friends and family members have asked you, and sometimes they ask it with a bit of bewilderment, not so much about what we do, (although that is a question, too), as why we do it rather than something else. We do what we do, I believe, because we are deeply aware of the potential that every human being has and how this potential is held back for whatever reason. Our wonderful mission is to help that person uncover and confront, sense not paralysis but empowerment, move forward from the known to the unknown, not because we have done it for them, but because we have created the safe place where the client can envision the possible and then live into that vision.

Thank you for choosing to pursue this career as a counselor!

Your efforts are making a difference for others. PAMHCA is here to help. We on the Board would like to encourage members throughout the State of PA to contact each other, to meet informally at Breakfast Networking meetings, to create groups of peer support and encouragement, to talk about issues that only counselors live and understand. The caring for one another and the self-caring each one needs to practice will overflow into our caring for our clients!

Please feel free to contact me, jrflynn@aol.com or any other of the Board members so that together we can strengthen our statewide network. Blessings on you, your loved ones, your clients and our world, as we come to this season of feasts for many, but also for some a time of stress.

John R. Flynn, LPC, NCC
President PAMHCA

Counseling News
Moving the field of counseling forward

The federal government has issued regulations to require parity of health insurance coverage for mental health and addictive disorder services, realizing a long sought-for goal of ACA and the rest of the behavioral health advocacy community. No longer will health insurance companies be allowed to use separate and unequal treatment limits and cost-sharing requirements to restrict use of mental health—and, for the first time, addictive disorder—services. The regulations implement the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008.

The regulations were released Friday, January 29th, and will apply to health plan years beginning on or after July 1, 2010. The regulations were issued as an ‘interim final rule,’ meaning that minor modifications may be made following the comment period, which ends May 3rd. The regulations are posted online at http://www.federalregister.gov/OFRupload/OFRData/2010-02167_PI.pdf.

The regulations do not contain any provisions regarding individual types of practitioners, but focus instead on the broader issue of how health plans devise their benefits packages. Under the regulations, private group insurance plans covering 50 or more people will no longer be able to use treatment limitations or financial requirements for mental and addictive disorder care that are not also used for substantially all other covered services.

The regulations prohibit the use of both quantitative and non-quantitative types of treatment limitations on treatments. Thus, health plans will be prohibited from using both arbitrary numerical visit limits, and different preauthorization or utilization review procedures, for mental and addictive disorder services. The regulations apply the parity requirements to six separate components of a health plan: inpatient in-network care, outpatient in-network care, inpatient out-of-network care, outpatient out-of-network care, emergency care, and prescription drug coverage.

The regulation also prohibits the use of separate annual deductibles for mental and addictive disorder treatment coverage. Plans must use a single, combined annual deductible for all medical/surgical, mental health, and substance abuse care.

ACA will post more information regarding the parity regulations shortly, on our website at http://www.counseling.org/publicpolicy. In the meantime, please contact me at sbarstow@counseling.org should you have any questions.

Scott Barstow
Director of Public Policy and Legislation
American Counseling Association
5999 Stevenson Avenue
Alexandria, VA 22304
703.823.9800 x234
703.405.9711 (cell)
703.823.0252 (fax)
800.347.6647 x234
703.823.6828 TDD
sbarstow@counseling.org
www.counseling.org

As you may be aware, AMHCA has partnered with Give an Hour™ (www.giveanhour.org), a national nonprofit organization providing free counseling and other mental health services to members of the military, veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, their families, and their communities.

In response to the tragedy in Haiti, Give an Hour™ will also be offering free mental health services to all volunteers serving in Haiti, including civilians, military personnel, and loved ones of those who volunteer. Thousands of military personnel and civilian aid workers are responding to the crisis, and many will face psychological effects from dealing with such horrific circumstances. Moreover, these personnel left their families and their lives at home quickly and so families may be having a difficult time adjusting to the separation as well.

While there are more than 4,600 mental health professionals on the network nationwide, there is a critical shortage in many areas, particularly in the communities surrounding our military installations. As we raise awareness about the psychological issues surrounding combat and deployment, more people are seeking services through Give an Hour™.

Give an Hour™ is an important and well respected organization, filling a critical need. If you are willing to volunteer one hour a week (for a minimum of one year) to help our military men and women and their families heal from wartime service or to help our fellow citizens who are providing humanitarian relief in Haiti, please join the Give an Hour network.

Registration is quick and easy. Log on to www.giveanhour.org and click on "Providers." Please spread the word to your colleagues.

Sincerely,
Linda Barclay, Ph.D. LPCC/S LICDC NCC
AMHCA President

Calling All National Certified Counselors (NCC):

Would you like to take an active role in promoting the counseling profession? The Nominations Committee of the NBCC Board of Directors is seeking nominations for two open positions on the NBCC Board. We are looking for certificants who want to participate in the leadership of this great organization.

Click here for more on the leadership qualities we are looking for in a director, as well as what’s required of a director. Thank you for your interest in providing service to NBCC and the counseling profession.  

http://www.nbcc.org/whoWeAre/Board.aspx

This year's PCA Conference offered a great opportunity to network with colleagues from around the State and to earn some CEUs. Looking forward to the ACA Conference in Pittsburgh!

A message from ACA: House To Vote on Health Care Bill Including Medicare Coverage of Counselors

This morning House leaders introduced the version of health care legislation to be voted on soon by the chamber—H.R. 3962, the “Affordable Health Care for America Act”—and ACA is pleased to report that like earlier versions of the bill, the legislation includes Medicare coverage of licensed professional counselors.  ACA applauds the House for developing this important legislation, and is working to gain its enactment. Medicare is the nation’s single largest health insurance program, covering more than 41 million Americans, a number that will grow steadily as the baby boomer generation ages.  Medicare coverage of counselors is important for the health and well-being of beneficiaries; many beneficiaries live in areas without adequate access to mental health specialists, and older Americans remain at higher-than-average risk for committing suicide. learn more...

California Becomes 50th State to License Counselors

California Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, signed SB 788, legislation establishing licensure for mental health counselors. With the addition of California, this means that there is licensure for counselors in all states. NBCC would like to recognize the hard work of the California Coalition for Counselor Licensure (CCCL) as well as the countless dedicated counselors and graduate students who have written, called and visited legislators. Specific information, including requirements and implementation dates, is posted on the CCCL Web site at www.caccl.org

IMPLEMENTATION DATES
January 1, 2010: The bill becomes law and the Board of Behavioral Sciences then has the responsibility for developing the rules and regulations to implement the bill and it will gear up to accept LPCC applications.

January 1, 2011: Applications for grandparenting and reciprocity will be available through the Board of Behavioral Sciences.

January 1, 2012: Applications for regular licensure will be available for those not eligible for grandparenting or reciprocity.

These requirements are posted now on CCCL’s website, www.caccl.org, under Licensure Requirements. CCCL will continually update its website, as information becomes available on providers of required coursework, and administration of required examinations.

...read more about this issue on our legislative updates page...