The PsiAN Series: Advocating for Our Patients, Our Practice and Ourselves
KATE GALLAGHER, PhD
JOE FELDMAN, MBA
BRIAN HUFFORD, ESQ
EMPOWERING CLINICIANS: PRACTICAL TOOLS TO SUPPORT MENTAL HEALTH TREATMENT
with Moderator Bevin Campbell, PsyD
Friday, February 28th from 11am-12:30PM/Eastern
AN ONLINE WEBINAR
1.5 CONTINUING EDUCATION CREDITS ARE AVAILABLE. Instructions about how to obtain available CEs are sent out to registrants in the entry link email, prior to the event. If you miss that letter (for late sign-ups), you should request CE instructions after the event.
For general CE Credit information, click here
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NOTE: Confidentiality requirements prevent the recording of this presentation.
Cost: $30 per person
ABOUT THIS EVENT
In an ideal world, everyone would have access to affordable, quality health insurance. Clinicians would provide the care that’s needed, and insurers would reliably process and pay claims. If problems arose, laws, regulations, and litigation would ensure compliance and fairness and help protect patients and their treatment. After all, health insurance benefits are designed to help people access the care they need to maintain their health and well-being without facing overwhelming obstacles and financial burdens.
Regrettably, this ideal system remains elusive. Disparities in insurance coverage, especially for mental health, routinely force people to choose between forgoing essential care or incurring massive out-of-pocket expenses. When it comes to therapies of depth, insight and relationship, obtaining appropriate insurance coverage may be especially difficult. For those already facing mental health and addiction issues, navigating insurance denials and fighting for appropriate coverage can be a daunting prospect. When the system falls short, advocacy by patients and clinicians may be required. Yet, many clinicians feel equally disempowered and lost.
The purpose of this panel is to empower clinicians with the knowledge and resources needed to support patients in obtaining appropriate reimbursement for treatment. Drawing on their diverse professional backgrounds, panelists will identify common barriers to care, demystify the systemic factors underlying these barriers, and provide practical resources – tools, templates, step-by-step instructions – to address them.
ABOUT THE PsiAN SERIES
In these last few years, we have witnessed unprecedented upheaval in the areas of politics, social justice, the natural world, and public health. Alongside these national and global challenges, we are amid a mental health crisis with decreasing access to psychotherapy. It is vitally important in order for our practices and communities to thrive to be informed about how depth therapies can help, what people are looking for in mental health treatment, and how we can support and protect the work we do, while making it more accessible to more people.
Prevailing myths and misconceptions regarding mental health and psychotherapy that either clinicians or the public hold need to be challenged, as they limit our capacity to help more people in more circumstances and often steer the public, including marginalized communities, towards a reduced set of options.
Many of these areas are not addressed in undergraduate and graduate education, and therapists often start practicing without a greater understanding and appreciation of these issues and the very real ways in which they can impact and impede our work.
This webinar series will help students and therapists at all career stages develop a greater understanding of the mental health landscape, and how they can protect and advance the work they do.
Read about the Psychotherapy Action Network (PsiAN)
ABOUT THE PANELISTS
Kathryn (Kate) Gallagher, PhD, is a staff psychologist, psychoanalyst, and faculty member at the Austen R
iggs Center. She is also in private practice in Stockbridge, MA. In addition to her clinical practice, Dr. Gallagher is committed to addressing human rights and health equity issues. This often takes the form of supporting patient and clinician efforts to obtain insurance coverage for medically necessary behavioral health care.
Joe Feldman, MBA, is President and Founder of Cover My Mental Health. He began advocating for access to mental health care after overcoming denials for his daughter’s residential care, including with a successful federal lawsuit. His advocacy work has included policy-driven discussions with legislators and regulators, a board role with The Kennedy Forum Illinois, presentations to parent groups, and publication of actionable guidance such as a 2021 article in the Journal of Psychiatric Practice on medical necessity letters (including a letter template).
Brian Hufford, Esq, a graduate of the Yale Law School, is a Partner at Zuckerman Spaeder LLP in New York City. Over the past two decades, he has been an industry leader in challenging improper denials and underpayments by health insurance companies and claims administrators on behalf of providers, provider associations, and patients. His efforts include a national legal effort that is systematically challenging mental health discrimination by insurers. In his innovative and nationally recognized practice, Mr. Hufford’s work has provided relief to tensof thousands of individuals who have been impacted by widespread mental health discrimination or other forms of improper coverage denials, forced policy changes by insurers, and significantly influenced health care law. These efforts have led to two of the largest recoveries ever obtained in ERISA-based health insurance class actions, and to a collection of other precedent-setting decisions that have transformed the rights of patients and providers. Mr. Hufford led the team behind the landmark case Wit v. United Behavioral Health, which has been recognized as one of the most important litigations addressing the legal rights of patients seeking appropriate coverage for their behavioral health services.
Mr. Hufford has received numerous honors and designations relating to his work, including being honored with the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) 2021 Rona and Ken Purdy Award for Distinguished Service for his sustained contributions to improving the lives of people who suffer from mental illness and their families. He has been awareded Law360’s “MVP” Award five times, twice been named a Plaintiff’s Attorney “Trailblazer” by The National Law Journal, and has been consistently recognized in industry rankings such as Benchmark Litigation and Super Lawyers. He is also a Board member of PsiAN, in addition to many other leadership positions. Married to his wife, Wendy, another attorney, Mr. Hufford is the proud father of eight children.
lliam Alanson White Institute. She is a teaching and supervising faculty member of the Health Psychology and School/Clinical Psychology programs at Pace university. She is a longtime PsiAN member and is the creator and host of PsiAN Speaks Live, a quarterly forum on issues impacting contemporary mental healthcare.