January 8, 2023
MFTs are Medicare Providers, effective January 2024
After over 30 years, AAMFT finally got it done, together with professional counselors, ACA. Now, MFTs are EQUAL to other mental health professions. This is mammoth achievement!
As individual LMFT, some of you recall letters to senators and congressmen that you had written and/or “the trips to the hill” at the Capitol that we had made.
Now there is plenty of advocacy work to do to get MFT into job classifications. We would like to see that in Nebraska not just LMHP or LIMHP listed but along with social workers, MFTs are listed too. What you can do now is to amplify the word that MFTs have become Medicare providers, effective 2024. It is not just for the elderly, over 65. Those who are disabled receive Medicare.
This is the passage of the Mental Health Access Improvement Act and the Omnibus federal spending bill . Suffice to say this legislation would allow MFTs in private practice or other settings to become Medicare-eligible providers.
Please celebrate our very well deserved status, Medicare -eligible providers, with everybody.
Anne Buettner
Legislative Chair