In an effort to make advocacy easy and accessible to all of our members, the Advocacy Committee Chair will be providing you all with a monthly call to action. This is a meaningful and impactful way for you to stay involved and advocate for important topics surrounding clinical social work in California.

An update on Medicare’s coverage of Telemental Health, from Clinical Social Work Association:

Possible Congressional Actions

All of the options below have been proposed by different members of Congress.

• Congress could extend telemental health through a stand-alone bill. This seems very unlikely.
• Congress could attach telemental health to other bills that are moving. The most likely one would be the Congressional Resolution, which will be needed to pass a budget to keep the government running as of March 14. This is a possibility.
• Congress will address continuing coverage of telemental health after the March 31 deadline but there will be a delay of a few weeks, which may cover the time when there was no coverage. This is a possibility.
• Congress will do nothing and there be no Medicare coverage of telemental health. This is unlikely.

LEGISLATIVE ALERT

Now is a good time to let your members of Congress know that you want a prompt continuation of telemental health in Medicare. Here is a template you can use to send them: “I am a licensed clinical social worker, a member of the Clinical Social Work Association, and a constituent. It will be very harmful to vulnerable patients with serious mental health and substance use problems if they cannot continue to work with me using telemental health. Many patients who were unable to get help in person have done very well using this delivery system. I urge you to extend Medicare telemental health coverage permanently as soon as possible.” Send your messages to your senators and representatives at https://www.congress.gov/contact-us.

Reach out to the advocacy committee chair for additional guidance and support

Veronica Yakovenko, LCSW  
Advocacy Chair  
CSCSW  
vytherapist@gmail.com