Mar 24, 2023 | News
Mental Health America recently released its chartbook The State of Mental Health in America, which provides statistics on the prevalence of mental illness and access to mental health care. Vermont ranked 12th overall (balancing prevalence of mental illness and access to care); it is ranked 45th in prevalence of mental illness (meaning a high prevalence) and 1st in access to care (meaning high level of access to care). It’s an interesting comparison to the total figures for the United States and for individual states; Vermont is doing well compared to many other states.
You can read the entire report on MHA’s website, including a description of the various statistics and rankings they used and past years’ reports.
Mar 23, 2023 | Advocacy, News
VPA has been advocating for the passage of PSYPACT, Vermont H.282, for some time. Great news! PSYPACT passed through the House Health Committee and has now gone to the House Ways and Means Committee. Here is written testimony from the Office of Professional Regulation from March 16, 2023, reporting on the Board of Psychological Examiners’ support for PSYPACT. We are hopeful this bill will pass through the House this session and complete its journey through the Senate in 2024. Here is where you can get more info on H.282.
As of this date, PSYPACT has been enacted and is effective in 34 states; 2 additional states have enacted PSYPACT but it is not yet effective in those states. You can see a map of states that have enacted PSYPACT here. If you support the passage of PSYPACT, please write your legislators and ask them to co-sponsor or at least support passage of this important legislation!
Mar 19, 2023 | Insurance, News
A number of changes to Medicare were passed in late 2022, including an expansion of the providers who can be reimbursed, an extension of telehealth waivers, and a new conversion factor. You can see an easy-to-read summary of these changes written by APA staff here.
Mar 19, 2023 | Insurance, News
Psychologists now have a mechanism to provide and report interprofessional consultations (through telephone, electronic medical records, etc.) for diagnosis and treatment. The new CPT® codes are 99446–99449 and 99451. We caution you to check with your insurer to see if they reimburse for these codes before billing. You can read more about these new codes on the APA website.
Mar 19, 2023 | Advocacy, News
In early March, the Colorado governor signed RxP into law in Colorado. Colorado is the sixth state to allow prescriptive authority for psychologists with advanced post-doctoral training.
Bills in Hawaii and Washington failed to pass thus far.
