01/02/2024

PCA January Announcements and Upcoming Events

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Thursdays, January 4 & 18, 2024

Pennsylvania Specialists in Group Work (PASGW) will host its monthly virtual graduate student support groups.  

All graduate students are welcome to join our student-run support group. This group is designed to provide a space for students to reflect on their educational journeys and everything that goes along with it. Please reach out to Rachel Rectenwald with any questions (hmbdc@iup.edu).

To sign up, complete this form.

Friday, January 19, 2024

The Pennsylvania Association for Spiritual, Ethical, and Religious Values in Counseling

(PASERVIC) is hosting its monthly, peer-to-peer, grounding support group for counselors and therapists. 

The support group occurs on the third Friday of each month (dates listed below). GSG is free for PASERVIC members, $10 to register for PCA members, and $15 for non-PCA clinicians.

Please email pca.paservic@gmail.com for more information, to register, or for payment instructions. An email with the Zoom link will be sent to registrants before each date.

• 2024 Dates: 1/19, 2/16, 3/15, 4/19, and 5/17

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Overview of Incident-to Billing and Tiered Licensure in Pennsylvania

December was a very busy month for Executive Leadership and the Government Relations Committee.  Multiple texts, emails, phone calls, and video calls were made during the month to identify the concerns surrounding Highmark’s reiteration of the Blue Shield Insurance Law (Title 40) which indicates that only licensed individuals may bill for services.  Highmark’s fall 2023 announcement was reported to be released to the public as a result of a Highmark audit.  As such, the information gathered around the insurance law and incident-to billing was clarified by Representatives from Highmark and Insurance Panel that pre-licensed counselors may not bill as “incident-to” as it is illegal to do so.  This information was covered in the PCA Town Hall on December 6, 2023, and is available to view to membership on the PCA Member page.  

We quickly realized the need for a sustainable solution as this is a much larger issue that would impact counselors and clients across the Commonwealth.  During our call with representatives at Highmark, the Insurance Panel, and state legislators on December 6, 2023, the obvious issue of continuity of care was on everyone's’ minds.  An inquiry was made with Highmark as to if a “safe harbors” would be possible.  The installment of a “safe harbors” would permit a short-term solution with hopes to allow services to be uninterrupted while a long-term solution could be instituted.  PCA provided anecdotal and billing data to Representatives from Highmark, the Insurance Panel, and PA Legislators as part of the push towards extending care through “safe harbors,” allowing more time for a permanent solution.  Ultimately, PCA did not hear back from Highmark regarding “safe harbors.”

Although an immediate result was not legally possible, we are very excited that tiered licensure has hastily been brought forth in Harrisburg.  For those that are not aware, it can take quite a long time to take an idea and have it passed into law.  The process for change can be slow, spanning years, possibly even stagnating and eventually abandoned.  The GRC started to work immediately through grassroots efforts and were able to secure sponsors in both the House and Senate for tiered licensure with support of Highmark’s Government Affairs Representatives.  Tiered licensure would be an incredible step in the evolution of our profession in Pennsylvania.  Not only would it legally permit billing as per the insurance law above, but it could also open up a number of opportunities for practice and accessibility to care.  

PCA will continue to share your stories with legislators and their representatives as we advocate for our clients and the profession.  We want to keep this momentum going in Harrisburg and ask that you reach out to your local legislators with this template supporting tiered licensure. If you need to find your local, you may do so here.

Happy New Year!

Ashley Deurlein, LPC, NCC (she/her)
55th President

PCA has an official Discord server! 

The server is now live, and we will be rolling out links to the server via an email from our marketing and outreach committee to the registered email address of our members. If you are not familiar with Discord, it’s a service that allows anyone to create a unique server. This server is then filled with interest channels (in our case, channels that are specific to our divisions, interest networks, and of interest to counselors generally), and members who have access to the server can move within these text and audio/video channels to interact with other members.