STATE OF NEW YORK
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3554
2015-2016 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
January 27, 2015
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Introduced by M. of A. BROOK-KRASNY -- read once and referred to the
Committee on Health
AN ACT to amend the social services law, in relation to making care and
services provided by licensed mental health counselors eligible for
coverage under the Medicaid program
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Legislative intent. Whereas Medicaid covers mental health
2 services in New York state to psychiatrists, psychologists and social
3 workers, Medicaid does not recognize New York state licensed mental
4 health counselors as providers within the Medicaid program. Mental
5 health counselors are often the only mental health providers in urban
6 underserved minority communities. A critical result of this lack of
7 providers is that minority communities bear a disproportionate number of
8 burdens of mental health disabilities and inadequately treated mental
9 health disorders. Excluding mental health counselors from treating Medi-
10 caid beneficiaries with untreated mental illness puts such beneficiaries
11 disproportionately at risk for engagement with the criminal justice
12 system. This puts individuals, families and communities at risk of harm.
13 Approximately 26 percent of adults experience a diagnosable behavioral
14 health disorder each year, and researchers have reported 20 percent of
15 adolescents display psychological problems. Behavioral health disorders,
16 ranging from inattention to violence are often a result of those psycho-
17 logical problems.
18 Mental health counselors represent over 40 percent of licensed mental
19 health practitioners in New York state. Unfortunately Medicaid does not
20 recognize their important contribution to the present health care deliv-
21 ery system.
22 § 2. Subdivision 2 of section 365-a of the social services law is
23 amended by adding a new paragraph (cc) to read as follows:
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD08250-01-5
A. 3554 2
1 (cc) care and services provided by mental health counselors licensed
2 pursuant to section eighty-four hundred two of the education law,
3 including such care and services provided in a hospital out-patient or
4 clinic facility referred to in paragraph (c) of this subdivision.
5 § 3. This act shall take effect on the ninety-first day after it shall
6 have become a law.
