Federal Legislative Update

AMHCA (our parent chapter representing clinical mental health counselors on a national level), is calling upon counselors nationwide to contact their senators and representatives to voice support for Senate Bill 286 and House Bill 945, which would extend Medicare billing privileges to licensed counselors nationwide.  I cannot stress how vital it is that counselors get Medicare billing privileges.  We comprise the largest section of the U.S. behavioral healthcare workforce, and our senior citizens deserve to have access to us for their mental healthcare.  Additionally, if the U.S. ever moves towards a “single-payer” Medicare healthcare system, lack of Medicare billing privileges would dramatically reduce opportunities for counselors nationwide.  Please contact your legislators today!  I have attached the update from AMHCA that provides you with additional information.  You can download sample communications here (http://www.amhca.org/advocacy/medicare), and you can identify your federal senators and representatives here (https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials).  I will be joining other AMHCA board members in meeting with legislators in DC in July and will provide you with another update then.

State Legislative Update

I have good news and bad news on the various bills that were designed to enhance counselor licensure portability in Florida.  The bad news is that none of the bills introduced during this legislative session passed both the house and the senate, so all of them “died” this legislative session (i.e., H0247, H0509, H7031, S0188, S0884, S1042).  The good news is that the mere fact that we heard absolutely no objections to licensure portability while meeting with legislators, and the fact that the one licensure portability bill that was voted on (S0188) was unanimously approved by ALL state senators, Republicans and Democrats), reflect bipartisan support for our portability plan.  We will work hard to re-introduce this legislation next legislative session, building on the momentum from the current legislation.  As each state passes licensure portability plans that are consistent with the national counselor licensure endorsement process (NCLEP 2.0), we will pave the way for a state-to-sate compact that would enable counselors to very easily get licensed in multiple states, just like nurses do.

H0721 and S1128, two bills that were designed to crack down on illegitimate emotional support animal letters (but was thought to be difficult to enforce), “died on calendar,” meaning that it never made it to a house vote this legislative session.

H0109/S0084 which would have banned healthcare professionals from providing conversion therapy (a.k.a. “reparative therapy”) to minors, died in committee.

S7030 passed and was signed into law.  This law is controversial, as it establishes/expands Florida’s Guardianship program, which allows school districts to elect to train and arm volunteer teachers.  However, the bill also expands funding for mental health services when high-risk students are identified in a school environment.