Legislative and regulatory changes are expanding Medicare’s pool of behavioral health providers. Lynn Cooper was going through an awful time. After losing her job in 2019, she became deeply depressed. When the pandemic hit in early 2020, her anxiety went through the roof. Then her cherished therapist — a marriage and family counselor — told Cooper she couldn’t see her once Cooper turned 65 and joined Medicare.“I was stunned,” said Cooper, who lives in Pittsburgh.
As a result, older adults anxious about worsening health or depressed by the loss of family and friends have substantial difficulty finding professional help. Barriers to care are made more acute by prejudices associated with mental illness and by ageism, which leads some health professionals to minimize older adults’ suffering.
Cooper, now 68 and a behavioral health policy specialist at the Pennsylvania Association of Area Agencies on Aging, bumped up against Medicare’s limitations when she tried to find a new therapist in 2020: “The first problem I had was finding someone who took Medicare. Many of the providers I contacted weren’t accepting new patients.”
Robert Trestman, who chairs the American Psychiatric Association’s Council on Healthcare Systems and Financing, called on lawmakers and regulators to maintain those expansions and continue to reimburse mental health telehealth visits at the same rate as in-person visits, another pandemic innovation.
Although parity is required for private insurance plans under the 2008 Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, Medicare is excluded.