A Virginia Tech professor’s research has influenced an historic expansion of Medicare’s mental health coverage. This relates to the U.S. witnessing the largest expansion of Medicare’s mental health coverage in history.
There are more than 60 million U.S. citizens are covered by Medicare, which is federal health insurance for people older than 65 years old. Historically, such people were not able to access services from marriage and family therapists or mental health counsellors.
Yet it is estimated there were thousands upon thousands of older adults, veterans, and individuals with disabilities who were in desperate need of mental health support and were waiting months for appointments. Such instances are symptomatic of the dysfunctional US market-driven healthcare system and unsatisfactory levels of state support.
This situation was until a law, heavily influenced by research at Virginia Tech, went into effect in early 2024. This came about through an act of Congress.
The law gave mental health professionals not previously covered the opportunity to enrol as Medicare providers. So far, about 43,000 mental health counsellors and marriage and family therapists have opted in, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, allowing those 60 million people covered by Medicare to have access to services they would not have had before.
According to the Administration for Community Living (ACL), the United States will see major growth in those covered by Medicare due to an aging population, which means the number of providers will need to increase to keep pace. Right now, there are roughly 65 million older adults covered by Medicare. The ACL predicts that number will hit 90 million to 95 million in the next 20 or 25 years.
Behind the changes is Dr. Matthew Fullen, associate professor of counselor education at Virginia Tech. Fullen has been advocating for health care professionals to be able to accept Medicare coverage.
“Modernizing mental health access for Medicare recipients is incredibly timely,” Fullen states. “Working alongside colleagues and graduate students to articulate why this change is needed has been the highlight of my career.”
“What that research trajectory helped to define was, ‘How many providers are being impacted by this outdated policy?’” Fullen explains. “Then, we added qualitative research focused on individual Medicare recipients who had not been able to find services because so much of the mental health workforce was not included.”
