VPA Board President Barbara Colombo, Ph.D. was recently interviewed for a blog on the Fielding Graduate University website. You can read that interview here. Dr. Colombo, a native of Milan, Italy, has done an impressive amount of research and publishing in addition to her academic and clinical work. We are fortunate to have her guidance and help on the VPA Board of Directors.
DVHA has come up a final solution to the issue of providers getting no—or delayed—reimbursement due to the Change Healthcare cybersecurity incident earlier this year. You can read about what DVHA is going to do here: https://humanservices.vermont.gov/sites/ahsnew/files/documents/24-029-F-GCR-Change-Healthcare-Response.pdf
In short, DVHA (Vermont Medicaid) made payments to impacted providers based on
historical average claims. For the period February 21, 2024, through
June 30, 2024, Medicaid providers were eligible to receive payment “in amounts representative of up to 7 days of claims payments for Medicaid services” that were not otherwise paid because of the Change Healthcare cybersecurity incident. You can find more information about the payment provisions at the link sent by DVHA: https://humanservices.vermont.gov/sites/ahsnew/files/documents/24-029-Att-4.19-Introduction-draft.pdf
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!
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.
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.