NASW-NC Legislative Update: Budget Update, Medicaid Expansion, and more

The North Carolina legislature has been fairly quiet the past few weeks as we await the House budget. They have been working on a few bills, including HB 951 Modernize Energy Generation. Learn from NASW-NC member and Representative Graig Meyer why it’s so important to know more about this legislation.

North Carolina House leadership indicated they will likely release their budget the second week of August. After the House passes their budget, House and Senate leadership will meet to negotiate one budget that could then be sent to Governor Cooper. This process will likely take two to three weeks. We will provide budget details as they are released.

Action Alert: Close the Coverage Gap in North Carolina
NASW-NC is part of a coalition advocating for closing the health insurance coverage gap, or Medicaid Expansion. Care4Carolina recently released a Coverage Gap Impact Map. You can scroll over the map and read county by county data with details on how many people in that county could gain insurance if we closed the coverage gap and the uninsured rate of non-elderly workers.

Care4Carolina also has an active action alert to contact your House members and ask them to support closing the health insurance coverage gap. This is an NASW-NC priority so please take action today!

Critical Race Theory
NASW-NC recently released a statement on Critical Race Theory (CRT) as measures to prevent CRT are being discussed at the state legislature. Senate leadership plans to discuss a new bill the first week of August that might include a constitutional amendment. Click here to learn more about why we are opposed to such efforts and what you can do to help!

NASW Virtual Social Work Advocacy Day

One HUGE benefit of NASW membership is advocacy and lobbying efforts at the National and State levels. This past week, staff and NASW-NC members participated in NASW’s first ever Virtual Social Work Advocacy Day.

We met with Congresswoman Deborah Ross and her staff, as well as staff from Congressman Price, Congresswoman Adams, Congresswoman Foxx, and the offices of U.S. Senators Tillis and Burr.

We discussed two major priorities for social workers:

The Improving Access to Mental Health Act (S.870/H.R.2035):

Legislators were asked to sign-on as co-sponsors of this important legislation that would impact social workers as follows:

• increase the reimbursement rate for clinical social workers in Medicare from 75% to 85% of the physician fee schedule;
• allow social workers to provide and bill Medicare for Health and Behavior Assessment and Intervention (HBAI) services that help clients manage physical health problems; and,
• allow clinical social workers to provide and bill Medicare for clinical services to residents in skilled nursing facilities.

Take action on this important legislation today!

NASW-NC is proud to announce that both Congresswoman Ross and Congressman Price have co-sponsored this legislation so be sure to say thank you when contacting them!

Extending Telehealth Flexibilities in Medicare Beyond the Federal Public Health Emergency (PHE)

Legislators were asked to create legislation and communicate to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) the importance of extending these provisions and to introduce and/or support legislation that extends the use of audio-only telehealth in the least restrictive manner, removes the in-person requirements associated with providing telemental health services, and supports payment parity for telehealth services to be covered and reimbursed at the same level as for in-person services.