{"id":7381,"date":"2023-11-29T02:00:57","date_gmt":"2023-11-29T03:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=7381"},"modified":"2023-11-29T03:59:12","modified_gmt":"2023-11-29T03:59:12","slug":"wisconsin-lawmakers-coming-together-on-telehealth-changes-for-mental-health-treatment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=7381","title":{"rendered":"Wisconsin Lawmakers Coming Together on Telehealth Changes for Mental Health Treatment"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/www.wisconsinrightnow.com\/telehealth\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Telehealth\"<\/p>\n

(The Center Square) \u2013 The plan to change Wisconsin\u2019s telehealth rules for mental health treatment is coming together at the State Capitol.<\/p>\n

The Senate Committee on Mental Health, Substance Abuse Prevention, Children and Families held a hearing Tuesday on Senate Bill 515 which would allow out-of-state mental health providers to take patients in Wisconsin without having to get a license to practice in Wisconsin.<\/p>\n

\u201cOverall, this breaks down barriers. It allows other providers to provide other services. And it allows people to get the help that they need,\u201d Sen. Rachel Cabral-Guevara, R-Appleton, said.<\/p>\n

The plan would essentially make Wisconsin\u2019s COVID-era telehealth program permanent.<\/p>\n

Supporters say it will also help battle Wisconsin\u2019s \u201ccrisis level\u201d shortage of mental health providers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe shortage is all the more stark when you look at rural areas of the state,\u201d Institute for Reforming Government\u2019s Alex Ignatowski told lawmakers. \u201cThe average throughout the state is one mental health provider for every 470 residents. But if you go to Buffalo County that jumps to 13,030 residents per one mental health provider.\u201d<\/p>\n

The proposal already cleared the Wisconsin Assembly, where Cabral-Guevara said there were some changes to get Wisconsin\u2019s Medical Society to drop its opposition.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were two amendments that were added. One limits the scope to just mental health providers. So, it takes out physicians, PAs, and nurses, and it puts in therapists, counselors, social workers, and psychologists to provide a little bit narrower scope,\u201d Cabral-Guevara said. \u201cThe other one provides that an out-of-state provider needs to register with DSPS so that we know these folks are registered within their state, and we have accountability here in our state.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ignatowski said the move to the break-down barriers and eliminate burdensome regulations is a good thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cCurrently 26 states have some sort of exception for out-of-state telehealth providers. These exceptions cover a number of medical and mental health provider groups, but often have a complex set of requirements. Wisconsin can do better,\u201d Ignatowski said. \u201cWe know that providers from other states are not drastically different to the point that we need to impose duplicative licensure requirements or put up new bureaucratic barriers between providers and the Wisconsinites who need help now. There is no silver bullet for solving mental health the mental health crisis in Wisconsin, but SB515 will increase access to mental health services in Wisconsin and warrants your support.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/www.wisconsinrightnow.com\/telehealth\/ (The Center Square) \u2013 The plan to change Wisconsin\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":7383,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wi-right-now"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/70"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7381"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7384,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7381\/revisions\/7384"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}