Mental health counselors are beginning a new era here in New York. As more and more counselors obtain licenses to practice, we can expect challenges to our ability to practice from other professions. We can also expect that acquiring recognition from the insurance industry will be a lengthy, and sometimes frustrating task.
We are fortunate to have an excellent lobbying firm which can intervene on our behalf with Albany legislators, legislative staff and with bureaucrats. Carr Public Affairs went above and beyond in helping us to obtain licensure and continued that work as we moved through the regulatory process. Their job (now Hinman -Straub) in the coming years will be to help us to draft and pass a law that will mandate the insurance companies that do business in New York to accept counselors as qualified providers. We will also work in the coming years with Jim Carr and his staff toward obtaining privileged communication for mental health counselors.
Jim Carr and Heather Evans of Hinman-Straub will continue to be on alert to any challenges to the ability of mental health counselors to practice our profession. They will review the changes in licensure and practice trends of other mental health professions and assess if those changes present difficulties for clinical counselors.
Beginning in fall, 2005, NYMHCA's Governmental Relations Committee began the task of contacting all of the insurance companies that do business in New York, alert them to the licensure of mental health counselors and request that they begin to accept mental health counselors on their panels.
We are requesting that that our members email or call us with news on jobs and internship sites that are now open to counselors as well as those that are still closed. We also need information regarding the insurance companies that either accept or reject licensed counselors in the coming months.
Check this page for updates on the progress of the insurance and legislative efforts.
