Knowledge is Power: An Analysis of Counseling Professionals’ Medicare Policy Proficiency

Abstract

This study examines counseling professionals’ knowledge concerning the Medicare program and related advocacy efforts. American Counseling Association members (N = 5,097) answered a series of true-false questions that were intended to measure proficiency in two areas: Medicare policy and the counseling profession’s advocacy for provider eligibility. Statistical analyses indicated that members have a wide range of Medicare knowledge. A significant difference in advocacy history knowledge was found when comparing counselor educators, practicing counselors, doctoral students, and master’s students. However, no differences in policy knowledge were present among these groups. Implications for the counseling profession and counselor training are discussed.

Advancing access to Medicare‐funded mental health treatment during the opioid epidemic: A counselor advocacy analysis

“…For example, increasing health care access appears to be an effective argument in both regulatory (Regulations.gov, 2018) and legislative advocacy (Fitch et al, 2017). This strategy may have been supported by recent findings regarding the effects of current Medicare policy on professionals and clients, which were some of the first empirical results related to the impact of the MMHCG (e.g., Fullen et al, 2019;Fullen, Brossoie et al, 2020;Fullen, Westcott et al, 2020), and have been disseminated by professional organizations such as ACA in advocacy calls to action (ACA, 2020).…”

“…Precision is one aspect of strategic communication, through which advocates can help policy makers understand the issue at hand, why it matters, and what the policy makers should do about it (Lee & Rodgers, 2011). However, constructing exact advocacy messaging requires knowledge of political change processes (Lee & Rodgers, 2011), understanding of policies under consideration (Fullen, Westcott et al., 2020), and clear, concise communication driven by data and constituent stories (Fitch et al., 2017; Prasad, 2018).…”

“…In that study, 44.1% of participants had participated in advocacy related to expanding opioid treatment access. However, these data provide evidence that there is limited Medicare policy literacy among counseling professionals, with large gaps in knowledge about the Medicare program and the profession's advocacy in this arena (Fullen, Westcott et al., 2020).…”

“…Although some data about counselors’ advocacy methods (Fullen, Lawon et al., 2020) and preexisting policy knowledge related to Medicare policy (Fullen, Westcott et al., 2020) exists, there is a need to better understand what happens when counseling professionals engage in the advocacy process and the professional values that inform their advocacy behaviors. The SUPPORT Act, which enacted several changes to Medicare to fight the opioid epidemic (H.R.…”

“…However, there are limitations to counselors' knowledge of Medicare policy, which may inhibit the quality of the information they provide to legislators and thus the precise application of MMHCG advocacy. Fullen, Westcott et al (2020) found that, of 5097 ACA members, 44.2% knew that Medicare is the largest payor for hospitalizations related to opioid overdose and 34.4% knew that Medicare is regulated at the federal level. One potential interpretation of these findings could be that many counseling advocates lack necessary information for articulating reasons for addressing the MMHCG, as well as the potential for not targeting advocacy efforts to relevant policy makers (e.g., contacting state representatives about Medicare policy issues), respectively.…”