Making Psychology’s Voice Heard: Practice Leadership Conference 2017*
When I talk to people about the APA Practice Organization, one of the first questions I hear is “What are they really doing for us?” One of the major things that APAPO does for psychologists is the Practice Leadership Conference—an event that this last week that brought 400 psychologist leaders to Washington DC to advocate on behalf of YOU (psychologists) and YOUR PATIENTS. The two main issues addressed included adding psychologists to the Medicare physician definition (bipartisan Medicare Mental Health Access Act HR1173/S 448) and advocating for any replacement to the Affordable Care Act to ensure coverage for mental and behavioral health services at parity.
These are two huge issues for our field. As the only doctoral providers not in the physician definition (chiropractors, optometrists, podiatrists, and dentists are in), psychologists are not eligible for electronic health records incentives, use of E & M codes for integrated care, and other issues impacting our bottom line. Psychologists also are subject to unnecessary physician supervision for Medicare patients including in partial hospitalization programs that limit patients’ access to treatment. The second issue may seem obvious—psychologist have been advocating for mental health parity for years with many successes. However, much of mental health parity was enacted through the ACA including mental health/substance use services as essential health benefits, parity in Medicaid expansion, and eliminating pre-existing condition clauses.
We were fortunate to be there on the Hill representing you the day after the replacement bill was released. I was with the Ohio delegation, and visited four representatives’ offices with our team which included our APAGS representative Teresa Smith. Teresa and I outlined our issues and told our stories, asking the representatives to co-sponsor our bill and champion mental health. We had positive interest in several offices, and Rep. Tim Ryan’s office signed on as a cosponsor! We were able to share how our patients lives have been impacted; for example, patients with breast cancer being able to access mental health treatment for the first time through Medicaid expansion and finally getting the mental health treatment needed with their diagnosis and their fear about losing coverage. Others in our delegation spread out to other offices, including Sens. Brown and Portman. Sen. Sherrod Brown from Ohio is the lead sponsor of the Medicare Mental Health Access Act in the Senate, and was additionally honored at a Black Tie Dinner at PLC fundraiser which many delegates attended. Rep Tim Murphy (R-PA), a practicing psychologists, was also honored and spoke for the group on his work on mental health policy.
The second question I generally hear from people when I talk about the APAPO is “Doesn’t APA already do that for me? Why should I pay extra?” The answer is “No, APA does not provide advocacy for you as a guild member psychologist.” As a c-3 nonprofit tax organization, APA cannot advocate on reimbursement or guild issues without risking losing its tax status. APA does many wonderful things; it advocates on behalf of education, public interest, and science issues. APA’s mission is psychology; APAPO’s mission is psychologists—both are important. However, the large majority of practicing psychologists continue to believe that “APA should do something about that” while not paying APAPO dues, not understanding that APA cannot provide the advocacy they need.
The third question I hear is “Where do those dues go anyway? I don’t see the value.” APAPO dues go toward important events like PLC; organization development grants (sometimes called CAPP grants) that go to small state psychological associations to help keep their doors open and provide advocacy at the state level; ongoing advocacy, legal/regulatory work, and developing tools to help practicing psychologists. These are the tools that practicing psychologists value highly, and they come through APAPO, not APA for the most part. Those dues provide high return value, helping advocate on state and national policy that affects your bottom line; they are a very reasonable investment in your career. So if these are important to you, please make sure you are a member of the APAPO.
PLC is much, much more, and I urge you to take a further look at the program to see the amazing programs that took place. I took part in orientation training for Presidents Elect from the states, where they could share ideas to strengthen psychology in their states. There were additional programs for diverse psychologists, early career, and graduate students. Topics ranged from fighting omnibus boards, integrated care training opportunities through grants, navigating hospital politics, and social justice issues.
I hope you got a flavor of the amazing work that APAPO is doing on behalf of psychologists.
*This blog represents my take on APAPO/CAPP news and is not an official communication of CAPP/APAPO.
Below are some useful links:
PLC: http://www.apapracticecentral.org/advocacy/state/leadership/index.aspx?_ga=1.268734962.2038239594.1460203619
APAPO: http://www.apapracticecentral.org/index.aspx
Advocacy Center: http://www.apapracticecentral.org/advocacy/index.aspx
APAPO press release repeal/replace: http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2017/03/health-care-act.aspx
