December 17, 2022

CSWA would like to clarify information about the rules that CMS and Congress will be putting into place when clinicians provide telemental health treatment under Medicare when the Public Health Emergency ends.

No one knows when the Public Health Emergency (PHE) will end. When it does, the following rules go into effect 151 days after the PHE ends.

1. Until 151 days after the PHE ends, you do not need to see anyone in person in order to provide telemental health treatment. After that time, CMS Guidelines require that you see a new patient one time in person before beginning to see that patient virtually. After that, you will need to see the patient in person once a year.

2. For patients you already see through telemental health treatment, you need to have seen them at least once in person within the past 6 months in order to continue seeing them virtually. If you have not seen them in person within the past 6 months, you will need to do so the first time you see them when the rules go into effect. After that initial in person session, you will need to see them again in person at least once per year.

While there is no requirement that the rules will apply to commercial insurers, they often follow the Medicare rules. At this time, there are no insurers who have said they will require the above rules.

Some of us no longer have a physical office anymore, are concerned about getting COVID, or want to avoid in-person meetings for other reasons. CSWA is working with the Mental Health Liaison Group (MHLG) and Congress to eliminate the requirement to see patients in person.

In short, there is no need to see patients in person currently. CSWA will let members know when or if this requirement goes into effect.

December 16, 2022

LIST OF CHANGES TO MEDICARE TELEHEALTH SERVICES: January 1, 2023 (updated November 1, 2022)

Here is some new information on Medical Telemental Health Coverage in 2023.

Postponing the Effective Date of the Telemental Health In-Person Six-Month Rule

In 2020, Congress imposed new conditions on telemental health coverage under Medicare, creating an in-person “exam” requirement alongside coverage of telemental health services when the patient is located at home. Under the rule, Medicare will cover a telehealth service delivered while the patient is located at home if the following conditions are met:

1. The practitioner conducts an in-person exam of the patient within the six months before the initial telehealth service starting 151 days after the end of the Public Health Emergency.

2. The telehealth service is furnished for purposes of diagnosis, evaluation, or treatment of a mental health disorder (other than for treatment of a diagnosed substance use disorder (SUD) or co-occurring mental health disorder); and

3. The practitioner conducts at least one in-person service every 12 months of each follow-up telehealth service starting 151 days after the Public Health Emergency.

While there is no requirement that this will apply to commercial insurance, they often follow the Medicare rules. At this time there are no insurers who have said they will require the above rules.

Behavioral Health

A new proposal is being finalized to create a new HCPCS code (G0323) describing General Behavioral Health Integration performed by clinical psychologists (CP) or clinical social workers (CSW). This code is to account for monthly care integration where the mental health services provided by a CP or CSW are serving as the focal point of care integration.

New Telemental Health Codes (Audio Only)

https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Medicare-General-Information/Telehealth/Telehealth-Codes

The following is a list of behavioral health ICD-10 codes that CMS will cover by audio-only through 2023 OR for 151 days after the end of the Public Health Emergency (PHE). To read the CMS statement go to the link above. Videoconferencing will be covered during the Public Health Emergency for the same codes that are used for in-person and also have 151 days after the end of the Public Health Emergency (PHE).

There are two new codes – 0362T And 0373T – which are connected to integrated medical and behavioral health care.

Code   Short Descriptor of Telemental Health Codes for Audio-Only CPT Codes

0362T Bhv id suprt assmt ea 15 min Available Through December 31, 2023

0373T Adapt bhv tx ea 15 min Available Through December 31, 2023

90785 Psytx complex interactive Available Indefinitely

90791 Psych diagnostic evaluation Available Indefinitely

90832 Psytx w pt 30 minutes Available Indefinitely

90834 Psytx w pt 45 minutes Available Indefinitely

90837 Psytx w pt 60 minutes Available Indefinitely

90838 Psytx w pt w e/m 60 min Available Indefinitely

90839 Psytx crisis initial 60 min Available Indefinitely

90840 Psytx crisis ea addl 30 min Available Indefinitely

90845 Psychoanalysis Available Indefinitely

90846 Family psytx w/o pt 50 min Available Indefinitely

90847 Family psytx w/pt 50 min Available Indefinitely

90853 Group psychotherapy Available Indefinitely

Please let me know if you have any questions about these changes to Medicare mental health coverage.

- Laura Groshong, LICSW, CSWA Director of Policy and Practice

November 21, 2022

By Laura Groshong, LICSW, CSWA Director of Policy and Practice

There are many issues affecting clinical social workers at this time, some of which are still being determined. This summary will address the recent issues that members have had questions about, even if the outcomes are not clear.

National Elections

At this point, the election results for the House of Representatives are still not complete. The Senate will remain in Democratic hands. This means there will be a better chance that the two issues which CSWA has been working on for LCSWs, i.e., improving the CMS RVU rates for Medicare and getting student loan forgiveness for CSWs will have a better chance of passage.

CMS Coverage of Telemental Health

The bills which are addressing telemental health will continue to be developed but are not clearly defined yet.

The current policy of CMS is that coverage of psychotherapy through videoconferencing and audio only will continue for 151 days after the end of the Public Health Emergency (PHE). There is no imminent attempt to end the PHE, as COVID continues to mutate and is still a major problem in many areas. It is unlikely that the PHE will end before next spring at the earliest.

BetterHelp

Many CSWA members have been receiving requests to join the BetterHelp panel, as well as being bombarded with ads to use BetterHelp clinicians on NPR, in magazines, on TV, and just about everywhere. While the short-lived partnership with CareDash that BetterHelp formed last summer has ended, there have been other problems with the way that BetterHelp provides services. Dr. Marlene Maheu, the Executive Director of Telebehavioral Health Institute, has found that BetterHelp is a multi-billion dollar company despite putting most of the burden of liability on the clinician (TBHI Newsletter, 11/22).

Social Work Compact

After a few months of little activity on the Compact – which would allow participating clinicians to be automatically licensed in other states – it appears that the draft bill that will need to be passed in any state that wants to participate will be ready by the beginning of 2023! I will be sending you the bill and some information on how to get the bill through state legislatures.

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season!

November 17, 2022

Licensed Clinical Social Workers (LCSWs) are the largest group of licensed mental health clinicians in the country, working in the public and private sector, providing psychotherapy and counseling on an individual, family and group basis in every state and jurisdiction. The acronyms below are the titles used in each state/ jurisdiction to designate independent clinical social work practice in that state.

Here is a list of the number of LCSWs in each state with the exact title used in that state. This data was collected from state social work Boards and administrators in September 2022. All LCSWs have requirements of two-three years post-graduate supervised experience and have taken a national examination. Most LCSWs are licensed to diagnose all mental health disorders in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual-5-TR and future editions, and treat these disorders when appropriate.

October 18, 2022

The following letter from the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) was sent to all social work schools, programs and social work regulators on October 3, 2022.

As you know, CSWA has taken a stand on the recent ASWB report which noted alarming, disparate pass rates between white and Black MSWs, as well as between younger and older MSWs and between English speaking and bilingual MSWs. While we believe that a Clinical Examination must be kept in place and that the CSWE recommendation that new MSWs no longer take the examination for new graduates be carefully reviewed, we are actively working toward engaging social work stakeholders and identifying viable and equitable solutions to this critical issue.

Please let us know if you have any questions about the ASWB controversy and/or recommendations about how to address these disparities.

- Kendra Roberson, PhD, LICSW, CSWA President

- Laura Groshong, LICSW, CSWA Director of Policy and Practice

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

October 3, 2022

As president and chief executive officer of the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE), I write to you on behalf of social work education programs across the country. As you are likely aware, the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) recently released a report documenting examination pass rates across different levels of the social work profession.

Although the data needs further analysis, the descriptive statistics suggest alarming disparities for exam takers in several categories. The most egregious disparity impacts Black test takers. In addition, Indigenous, and other People of Color also pass at lower rates than White test takers; those that speak English as a second language pass at lower rates than native English speakers; and older test-takers pass at lower rates than younger ones.

Given that the ASWB exam is the only national licensing examination available, these data raise grave concern that the need for a diverse health, behavioral health, and social service workforce (of which social workers are a considerable portion of providers1) is being significantly impeded.

As the national body for social work education in the United States, Puerto Rico, and Guam, the CSWE urges you to:

a. Suspend the use of the ASWB exam until a thorough analysis has been completed which will suggest evidenced based recommendations to correct for inequities.

b. Consider graduation from a CSWE Accredited social work education program evidence of beginning competence to practice social work as a professional social worker (granting all graduates licensure or pre-licensure status).

c. The only exception to the above involves the license to practice clinical social work. CSWE supports the need for a post-graduate process to license practice at this level, however if the ASWB exam remains central to this process, further analysis of the descriptive data must also occur for this category to identify possible issues.

d. Consider the action taken by the state of Illinois (January 1, 2022) through the Public Act 102-0326, whereby a licensing examination is no longer required for licensure as an Illinois Licensed Social Worker (LSW).

e. Consider decoupling the Interstate Compact, currently in development, from the ASWB licensure exam.

Thank you for your consideration. I would be happy to engage with you further about the concerns and/or recommendations I offer.

Sincerely,

Darla Spence Coffey, PhD, MSW

President and Chief Executive Officer

dcoffey@cswe.org

1 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (bls.gov) 2020 report indicates there are 715,600 social workers that work in Child, Family, School, Healthcare, Mental Health, and Substance abuse treatment settings.

October 6, 2022

The U.S. House of Representatives just passed the Mental Health Matters Act, a bill that could significantly improve access to mental health and addiction care in this country.

There are two critical provisions within the bill: Strengthening Behavioral Health Benefits Act (Title VI) and the Employee and Retiree Access to Justice Act (ERISA, Title VII):

Hopefully the Senate will take up this bill and we will see the kind of changes that are necessary to make mental health parity a reality. I will let you know when we need to support the bill in the Senate.

To see a summary of the Act, please visit https://edlabor.house.gov/imo/media/doc/mental_health_matters_act_fact_sheet2.pdf

September 8, 2022

As those of you who have attended the CSWA webinars on the Social Work Compact know, there is one more week to send your comments to the Council of State Governments on the draft document. Please visit the CSWA website to see information on the Social Work Compact.

To see the whole draft document, please visit https://compacts.csg.org/compact-updates/social-work/.

To send comments on the draft document, please visit https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/socialworkcompact.

The final date for sending comments is close of business on September 16, 2022.

Let me know if you have any questions.

- Laura Groshong, LICSW, CSWA Director of Policy and Practice

September 2, 2022

On August 5, 2022, the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) published data on pass rates for the Clinical Social Work Examination, which it oversees, as well as data on the other three levels of social work licensure (2022 ASWB Exam Pass Rate Analysis for Social Work Licensing Exams [aswb.org]). Publication of this initial data was long overdue. The noted disparities in pass rates, which vary by almost 40% for white and Black social workers were striking. Here CSWA provides historical context and suggestions for steps ahead.

History of Clinical Social Work Licensure

The clinical social work examination has been the national standard for independent clinical practice since 1950 when ASWB (formerly AASWB) began creating examinations and states began licensing clinical social workers (formerly called psychiatric social workers), beginning with California. As clinical licensure became the norm over the next 54 years (the last state to achieve licensure was Michigan in 2004), the profession established a general standard for licensure based on four elements: 1) obtaining an MSW at an accredited school of social work; 2) having 2-3 years of supervised experience, post-MSW; 3) passing the ASWB Clinical Examination; and finally, 4) having a social work licensure law approved by each state legislature and overseen by each state’s Board of social work. All four areas have different oversight mechanisms and little connection to each other. Correspondingly, there are no two states that have the exact same standards.

There is now a nationwide patchwork system which makes transferring licensure from one state to another problematic. The Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) has overseen schools of social work, but the standards for doing the work that leads to an MSW are quite elusive. Similarly, specific standards for supervised experience vary widely across the states.

Clearly, clinical social work is a young profession. LCSWs were approved to provide psychotherapy through Medicare in 1965, yet, there has been much fragmentation in the field. Efforts to standardize and integrate all parts of clinical social work were understandably set aside by stakeholder organizations in favor of creating licensure in all states and jurisdictions and achieving vendorship for clinical social workers.

Next Steps

There has been a widespread condemnation of ASWB for withholding information about the pass rates and/or being indifferent to the way that the clinical exam has yielded disparate pass rates for BIPOC and older clinical social workers. CSWA is in discussions with the new ASWB Executive Director, Stacey Hardy-Chandler, PhD, about the ways that ASWB, CSWA, and other stakeholders can work together to improve not only the clinical examination, but also the collective preparation of pre-licensed social workers to ensure an equitable exam experience. To this end, ASWB has also issued a statement about their intentions following the release of their report, which includes the following:

Need for the Clinical Examination

CSWA is aware of strong opinions of many, including LCSWs, that the clinical examination should be eliminated. There are three key reasons that CSWA does not support this idea:

1. In order to practice independently, LCSWs need to substantiate they have sufficient expertise to practice psychotherapy independently. The examination is a primary means of assessing that ability.

2. Passing the examination is written in to each states’ and jurisdictions’ laws and regulations.

3. The Social Work Compact, currently in development, which would allow LCSWs more flexibility to work in states with a multi-state license, will require LCSWs to pass a national examination.

Summary

CSWA believes that ASWB is now poised to attend to the inherent inequities exposed in the ASWB Clinical Examination process. We hope to work with ASWB toward that goal and encourage others to do so as well. Additionally, CSWA will press forward to advocate for meaningful integration of our education programs and licensing boards, efforts that can significantly impact ways the clinical examination is approached and regarded.

Contacts:

- Kendra Roberson, PhD, LICSW, CSWA President

- Laura Groshong, LICSW, CSWA Director of Policy and Practice

August 6, 2022

Earlier yesterday I sent you the BetterHelp statement which said that they were ending their connection to CareDash.

Now I am pleased to send you the news that CareDash is backing off their harmful stance toward clinical social workers in private practice, as well. While there are still some problems to be resolved, CareDash has 1) stopped their deliberate confusion about LCSW availability; 2) removed their “book an appointment” option which directed potential patients away from LCSWs who were not part of the CareDash network; and 3) clarified that their information comes from the NPI list of clinicians and has nothing to do with the quality of those clinicians. 

I am fairly certain that the outstanding response of CSWA members to the demeaning policies of CareDash had a major impact on their decision to back off their original stance. Thanks to all of you for your great contributions to this effort.

CSWA will continue to insist on the rights of all LCSWs in private practice to have access to all patients who want to see them without interference by any external organizations.

- Laura Groshong, LICSW, CSWA Director of Policy and Practice

August 5, 2022

Here is a link to an article published today in Bloomberg Law today about the CareDash situation which mentions CSWA:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-08-05/shadow-profiles-from-therapist-directory-spark-startup-backlash?sref=yqJvNODh

Keep sending your complaints to your state consumer protection agencies and the FTC.

Let me know when you have sent them, as always.

- Laura Groshong, LICSW, CSWA Director of Policy and Practice