SB 1508 School Confidentiality

This bill was signed into law. It goes into effect 1/1/10.

“Communications otherwise protected by law as privileged or confidential, including but not limited to, information communicated in confidence to a physician, psychologist, or other psychotherapist, school social worker, school counselor, school psychologist, or intern who works under the direct supervision of a school intern who works under the direct supervision of a school social worker, school counselor, or school psychologist; or (2) Information which is communicated by a student or parent in confidence to school personnel; or (3) Information which is communicated by a student, parent, or guardian to a law enforcement professional working in the school, except as provided by court order.(g) No school employee shall be subjected to adverse employment action, the threat of adverse employment action, or any manner of discrimination because the employee is acting or has acted to protect communications as privileged or confidential pursuant to applicable standards of professional responsibility, ethical codes, or relevant provisions of State or federal law.”

There has been at least one school district that has indicated that this has accomplished nothing. Unfortunately I can not define the above wording to be anymore than what it says. I believe we will reintroduce new confidentiality legislation next year with a clearer message.

HB 1143 – Scholarships

Signed into law.

I am working with DHS and IDFPR to get the money identified and implement this.

Synopsis

It establishes the Mental Health Graduate Scholarship Program. It would provide scholarships to individuals who are enrolled in a mental health graduate program in Illinois and who agree to being employed in Illinois as a LPC/LCPC, LSW/LCSW or licensed Psychologist or LMFT providing direct patient care in a human services capacity in a designated shortage area for at least one year for each year of scholarship assistance received.

SB 1391 MFTSchool Certification

This bill passed the House 71-44 and Senate 43-14 but we were able to convince the Governor to issue an amendatory veto. The Senate voted to override the Gov. veto. We opposed the bill in the House and the veto was not overridden.

We believe that the goal of the MFTs is to get certified with no additional training.MFTs can be certified under existing laws to work in schools but those existing laws require additional training. The same training counselors receive.

The bill needed 71 yes votes to override the Governor’s veto and pass.

Final Vote

YES to Override - 48

NO 64

Present 0

The bill fell 23 votes short. The bill is now dead.

In addition to the 1000s of emails ICA sent, both the school psychologists and school social workers contacted their representatives urging a NO vote. In addition ACA sent out a blast to all Illinois members.

HB 3257 as amended Licensure Law change

This was inserted as a shell bill. The House because of time constraints did not call any shell bills. It will be reintroduced next session. This bill corrects an outdated section of the licensure law and prevents Bachelor’s level applicants from still becoming LPCs. The licensure rules were changed several years to no longer allow B.A. applicants, but not the law.

SB 101 Last session signed by the Goveror

Mandates habilitative services for children

Signed into law.

Public Act 95-1049

Previously some insurance providers

CICO Sponsored -University Counselor Educators Annual Summit

March 5, 2010

Lisle, IL 10am-2pm

Licensure

Rule changes

Law changes

Education requirement

School Certifications –

MFT, etc.

Confidentiality law

SB 1050 Licensure opinion with a criminal record

Waiting on Gov signature -

Allows for rules to be developed by IDFPR allowing a person with a criminal record who seeks a license in an occupation that does not expressly bar them to get an advisory opinion as to whether their criminal record would bar the individual from licensure.

HB 3923

Waiting on Gov signature

Insurance Rate Fairness Passes Both Houses

When House Bill 3923 is signed by the Governor, consumers will see an increased level of transparency from the insurance industry in Illinois. The legislation will allow consumers to see critical information regarding industry profits and premium increases. The legislation also mandates that all insurance carriers in Illinois provide an independent external review process for claims that have been denied and requires that 75 percent of premiums be used for health care benefits.

This legislation results from a 2008 study conducted by the Family USA Foundation which found that Illinois is the worst state for providing consumer protections in the individual health insurance market. Under current law, insurers can set or raise premiums, and limit or revoke coverage without the state’s review.

The Director of the Department of Insurance is given great authority to unilaterally develop standards and overturn independent review of claim denials.

FEDERAL LEGISLATION

VA Meeting Held to Speed Implementation of Counselor Recognition Law

(Legislative News) 10.08.09

ACA staff and representatives of our sister organizations representing professional counselors and marriage and family therapists participated in a rare joint meeting with House and Senate Veterans Affairs Committee staff and Department of Veterans’ Affairs (VA) Assistant Secretary for Human Resources John Sepúlveda and several of his staff members from the agency. The meeting focused solely on implementation of the counselor and marriage and family therapist recognition provisions of Public Law 109-461, the 2006 law to add our professions as mental health specialists within the VA health care system. To date, the VA has made only minimal progress in implementing the law.

During the September 24th meeting House and Senate committee staff expressed strong concern regarding the slow pace of implementation, and pressed Sepúlveda and his colleagues to speed up their work. Sepúlveda stated that implementation of the counselor/MFT recognition law is now firmly on his radar screen, and expressed his intention to implement the law in one year’s time. The meeting resulted in agreement among all parties that the VA would establish new job descriptions for each of the two professions, instead of a single joint description, and that the VA will work with our organizations and the federal Office of Personnel Management (OPM) on the development of an occupational series for each of the professions.

The meeting is a strong, although only initial, step forward in gaining full recognition of counselors within the VA health care system. We are continuing to work with both the VA and Congressional offices to foster progress.

Pathways to College Act

The Pathways to College Act, with bipartisan sponsorship, is a bill designed to aid low-income and first generation students in the transition to postsecondary education by emphasizing the importance of school counseling in the college and career planning process.This bill will provide competitive grant funds to high-need school districts to invest in school counseling services by hiring, training, and equipping counselors to establish a college-going culture.

NACAC has endorsed this bill, which it helped draft. Now that the bill has been introduced, we would like to invite members of Congress to indicate their support through cosponsorship.

NACAC is challenging each state and regional affiliate to participate in the Pathways to College Act action alert goal of sending 15,000 messages to federal legislators urgingthem to cosponsorthe Pathways to College Act. The affiliate whose advocacy efforts result in the most messages sent in relation to their NACAC membership will be publicly recognized. To support the bill, take action now by clicking the link below…

Senate Health Bill Moving Toward Floor, Without Counselor Medicare Coverage Provision

(Legislative News) 10.09.09

The Senate Finance Committee completed substantially all work on health care and Medicare legislation in the early hours of October 2, having considered more than one hundred amendments to the legislation. Unfortunately, the legislation does not include a provision to establish Medicare coverage of medically-necessary mental health services provided by licensed professional counselors and marriage and family therapists. Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), a member of the committee, had considered offering an amendment to add counselor and marriage and family therapist coverage under Medicare, based on the bipartisan legislation (S. 671) she introduced with Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) to establish such coverage. The amendment was not offered, though, due to concerns regarding its potential lack of support. Senate leaders will now work to combine the Finance bill with one approved earlier by the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee, and take the package to the Senate floor.

House leaders are also putting together a single health care and Medicare bill to bring to a floor vote, based on versions of the legislation adopted by the three House committees with jurisdiction over the issue. The legislation is expected to be very similar to H.R. 3200, which includes language establishing Medicare coverage of counselors and marriage and family therapists.

ACA is working in coalition with other counselor and marriage and family therapist organizations to convince legislators to include the House bill’s Medicare coverage provision in the version ultimately approved by Congress. While adoption of the provision by the Senate Finance Committee would have greatly increased our chances of having it in the final bill, we can still reach this goal by maintaining—if not increasing—pressure on Senators to accept the House’s position on this issue. Senators should be reminded that their chamber approved Medicare coverage of counselors more than five years ago, in 2003, and did so again in 2005. Now more than ever, Medicare beneficiaries need access to the full range of qualified mental health service providers.

Counselors are encouraged to keep up pressure on Congress to bring Medicare policy up-to-date with private sector health plan policies by establishing coverage of licensed professional counselors. For more information, contact Scott Barstow with ACA at , or by calling 800-347-6647 x234.

Legislation Introduced to Improve Mental Health Services on College Campuses

(Legislative News) 04.06.09

On March 24th, Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) joined with Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) and Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) to reintroduce bipartisan legislation to improve mental health services on college campuses. The Mental Health on Campus Improvement Act (H.R. 1704/S.682) creates a competitive grant program that would provide funding to colleges to focus on both outreach to identify students with mental health needs and treatment of students coming to counseling centers for help. The grant program is modeled on the Elementary and Secondary School Counseling Program (ESSCP), which provides competitive grants to K-12 schools to hire more school counselors, school psychologists, school social workers.

“Last year when I first introduced this legislation, the shootings at NorthernIllinoisUniversity and Virginia Tech had focused national attention on challenges colleges face in identifying students who need mental health services,” said Senator Durbin. “Despite a renewed effort to address these challenges, colleges and universities remain largely unequipped to respond to the need for awareness, screening, and services. Our legislation will change that by making federal help available for campuses to expand their mental health services and outreach programs.”
“Proactively addressing the mental health issues of college-age students is a critically important issue,” said Senator Collins. “The bill, and its associated grants, would help to ensure that colleges and universities have the resources needed to provide mental health services and outreach to students.”

The International Association of Counseling Services recommends counselor to student ratios of 1 to 1,000 – 1,500. The average ratio on campuses in the United States is growing, with an average of only one counselor for every 1,941 students. At the same time, the American College Health Association finds that incidents of mental illness among students are reaching new heights with 43% of college students feeling so depressed they have found it difficult to function, 1 in 11 contemplating suicide in the last 12 months and more than 1,000 committing suicide annually. Ensuring access to mental health services and outreach for these students can make a real difference. Students who seek help are six times less likely to kill themselves than students who do not.
This legislation would ensure that colleges and universities have the resources and support they need to add personnel and aid students at a vulnerable time in their development by:

  • Establishing a grant program within the Department of Health and Human Services to assist colleges and universities in providing direct mental health services and outreach to students, families, and staff to increase awareness of mental health issues. The funds may also be used to hire staff and expand mental health training opportunities.
  • Calling on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to create a public health awareness campaign around mental health and to reduce the stigma associated with mental illness for students. CDC would be required to seek input from national mental and behavioral health organizations and colleges and universities.
  • Providing federal leadership by establishing an interagency working group on college mental health to discuss mental and behavioral health concerns and promote federal agency collaboration to support innovations in mental health services and supports for students on college and university campuses.

Access to Counseling in Department of Defense’s TRICARE Health Services Program

(Position Papers) 02.02.09

(Updated February 2009)LEGISLATION

Public Law 110-181 (originally H.R. 4986), “National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008”

Language was included in this legislation that required a study of professional counselors’ clinical qualifications and instructs the Department of Defense to issue regulations allowing LPCs to practice independently.

LATEST INFORMATION

In January of 2008, President Bush signed H.R. 4986, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008.

The enacted legislation requires Department of Defense to issue regulations outlining training credentials that would allow LPCs to practice independently under the TRICARE program. This means that counselors who meet those criteria may be granted independent practice authority under TRICARE, but the lack of a deadline in the legislation makes it difficult to forecast when those regulations might be issued.

The conference report also includes language instructing the Defense Department to contract with the Institute of Medicine (IOM) or a similar organization to carry out a study of the training and licensure of mental health counselors.

DOD expects that the regulations will not be issued for at least a year and does not anticipate being able to meet its March 2009 deadline for the study. Fortunately, the IOM has begun its study and has reached out to the ACA and AMHCA for information regarding professional counselors. We are currently working with the offices of Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) and Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-MI) to ensure that regulations are issued in a timely manner and that there is a strong and fair study.

A number of our favorite legislators are leaving or have left Springfield.

Rep. Kathy Ryg has left to be the President of an Illinois Child advocate program.

Rep. Beth Coulson and Rep. Julie Hamos are both running for the congressional seat held by Mark Kirk.

Mark Kirk is running for Roland Burris Senate seat.