Articles

Important Info for NY Members

Posted under New York State Information by Kelly Snider on May 15, 2025 @ 9:05am

Please join together with your New York colleagues to ensure that your provider specialty is covered under insurance contracts. The following information is from an APA member who resides in New York.

New York State has currently provided for the licensing of four new mental disciplines, namely, creative arts therapy, marriage and family therapy, mental health counseling, and psychoanalysis. The grandparenting period ended on December 31, 2025. The period of compliance with the new legislation whihc mandates that all mental health practitioners in New York State be licensed was extended to 2025 in order to accommodate the extraordinary number of candidates applying. It is anticipated that close to 10,000 people will be grandparented in this period and many more will apply as candidates become eligible under the post-grandparenting provisions.

The legislation which created the licensing was aimed at both assuring consumer protection and consumer choice in the mental health field. Each discipline is extremely valuabe as a modality and it therefore becomes important to communicate to insurers of mental health services the necessity of constructing contracts which open up and allow for a range of professional services.

Unfortunately in this early period of entering our new professional licesnes into the data bases of the insurers, it has come to the attention of some of us that roadblocks to reimbursement for our services exist. Particularly Blue Cross/Blue Shield and Medicare have indicated that their contractual agreements do not allow for providers in New York State other than psychiatrists, licensed psychologists, and licensed social workers and that there is no current intention to include the new disciplines. It is still early to determine what other roadblocks may occur, but it is extremely important to assemble the resources ahead of time to challenge the status quo.


If you would like to become involved and/or need further information, please email me at [email protected] or call (800) 205-9165.