Contact your policymakers

AOTA has been working alongside advocates across the country to help increase the number of occupational therapy practitioners providing mental and behavioral health services in our country. One piece of legislation that would make a difference is the Mental Health Professionals Workforce Shortage Loan Repayment Act (H.R. 4933). This bill would provide loan forgiveness for mental health professionals, including occupational therapists, who practice in areas designated as having a shortage of mental health professionals. Passage of this legislation would help people access the mental health care they need, even if they live in a mental health professionals shortage area. It would also help more new OT graduates take positions within mental health settings by providing loan forgiveness. Finally if signed into law, this bill would explicitly include occupational therapy in the definition of mental health provider - which would help current state and local efforts to expand the recognition of occupational therapy as a mental health profession.

The Occupational Therapy in Mental Health Parity Act (S. 1592) seeks to remove barriers to the provision of occupational therapy services for someone with a mental health diagnosis under Medicare and Medicaid where these services are already an allowed benefit. This bill, introduced in the Senate by Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) and Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) would expand access to OT services for mental and behavioral health disorders without changing current Medicare and Medicaid benefits or scope of services.

The SHARE Act would make a technical correction to existing law to allow a state licensing or certification entity to share the fact that a criminal background check was completed with the interstate compact commission.

Fixing this technicality can expedite the process of obtaining an additional license to practice in a new state, thereby increasing access to health care – particularly for patients in underserved or rural areas – while allowing states to protect their authority to determine who is eligible to practice in the state.

Advocates can use AOTA's Legislative Action Center (www.aota.org/takeaction) to write their own letter to their legislators.