The Seniors Mental Health Access Improvement Act of 2009

This information was sent by the American Mental Health Counselors Association. Please email or send a letter to your congressional representative and senator regarding the below information:

April____, 2009
The Honorable___________House/Senate Office BuildingWashington, DC 20510RE:

Please Co-Sponsor S. 671/H.R. 1693:

The Seniors Mental Health Access Improvement Act of 2009.

Dear Senator/Representative:

I am writing to strongly urge you to co-sponsor S. 671/H.R. 1693, The Seniors Mental Health Access Improvement Act, which would establish Medicare coverage for licensed professional mental health counselors. With the exception of a recent federal law that finally equalized outpatient co-payments for mental health and medical/surgical services, the baseline Medicare mental health benefit has not been updated in almost 20 years. This inaction has consequences.

Improve Access in Rural Areas and among Underserved Minority Populations:

Approximately 77 million older adults live in 3,000 mental health professional shortage areas. Yet over 50% of rural counties have no practicing psychologists, psychiatrists or social workers. It is shocking to note that fully two thirds of rural residents with mental illness symptoms receive no treatment at all. As a direct result of this lack of access, older Americans with chronic medical conditions and major depression (nearly 2 million senior citizens nationwide) have significantly higher rates of disability than those with either condition alone. Similarly, in a report entitled "Mental Health: Culture, Race and Ethnicity," the United State Surgeon General noted that "striking disparities in access, quality and availability of mental health services exist for racial and ethnic minority Americans." A critical result of this disparity is that minority communities bear a disproportionately high burden of disability from untreated or inadequately treated mental disorders.

Making Medicare a Better Purchaser of Mental Health Care:

Inpatient psychiatric hospital utilization by elderly Medicare recipients is extraordinarily high—particularly when compared to psychiatric hospitalization rates for patients covered by Medicaid, VA, TRICARE and private health insurance. To the extent that fully one third of these expensive inpatient placements are caused by clinical depression and addiction disorders, it is strikingly clear that additional community-based mental health services provided by licensed professional mental health counselors will reduce unneeded hospitalizations.

The bottom line is: lack of access to mental health care is increasing both the burden of disability on our senior citizens and minority communities as well as the financial burden on the Medicare program. Please Co-sponsor H.R. 1693/ S. 671.

Sincerely,