Louisiana Governor Signs LPC Bill into Law

On June 27th Louisiana Governor Blanco signed legislation clarifying that mental health counseling services include psychotherapy. The Governor's swift signature followed unanimous passage of the legislation by both the Louisiana Senate and House, an indication of their view of the importance of mental health services.

This legislation was necessitated because Trispan, a fiscal intermediary of Medicare, had erroneously interpreted the Louisiana LPC law and stated the law did not authorize LPCs to provide psychotherapy. They therefore declared that services of LPCs in mental health outpatient programs could not be reimbursed. This cost the loss of jobs for Louisiana LPC's. Trispan was also ordering repayment for previous reimbursements, which would have caused closure of many of these programs and a devastating loss of mental health services for the citizens of Louisiana.

The Louisiana Counseling Association worked with a tremendous coalition of health care providers to accomplish passage of this law.