As many of you know, Regence did not waste any time coming up with another way to limit reimbursement to paneled mental health clinicians after they rescinded their initial plan to 'combine' rates for 90834 and 90837 by severely lowering the 90837 rate.
A letter sent to paneled clinicians yesterday said that starting December 1, 2015, Regence will lower 90837 claims by about 25%. The rate for 90834 will remain the same.
This is comparable to the 30% cut that Regence tried to put in place on October 1.
The Coalition and other mental health groups, including NPSI, will continue to fight these unfair practices, which may be parity violations.
Please join the committees that the Coalition has set up to fight this continuing effort by Regence. Thanks to all who have agreed to participate in the committees set up by the Washington State Coalition of Mental Health Professionals and Consumers: Social Media; Publicity; Legal/Legislative; Position Papers; Liaison with other mental health groups; and Liaison with consumer groups. You can email me or Sue Wiedenfeld, PhD, Coalition Chair at swiedenfeld@me.com.
This fight is not over yet.
Laura W. Groshong, LICSW, Mental Health Advocate
206-524-3690
lwgroshong@comcast.net