Medicaid Reimbursement for Psychology Interns' Services

Resources and strategies for psychology training programs and interns to advocate reimbursement for services provided to the public by trainees.

Billing for services provided by trainees is often not allowed by Medicaid and private insurance companies. This presents a significant challenge to training programs that offer needed services to the public yet must find other ways to support the costs associated with running a quality training program. This is a key issue for health service psychology in the context of efforts to mitigate the psychology internship imbalance.

Why Advocate Reimbursement

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“We need grassroots action”

Sharon Berry, PhD, ABPP, discusses a new project at APA to provide tools to psychologists in each state who wish to seek or widen Medicaid reimbursement for trainee services in health service psychology.

Berry is the director of training for the APA-accredited internship program at Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota.

Advocacy Resources

• State progress and case studies: See which states can bill Medicaid for trainee services.
• Advocacy techniques: Watch our video tutorials to help get you started.
• Advocacy points: Facts to support the fight for reimbursement.

News & Events

• Kevin Arnold, PhD, discusses efforts in Ohio to secure Medicaid reimbursement for interns.
• Sharon Berry, PhD, participated in a panel discussion at APAPO's State Leadership Conference focused on removing barriers to Medicaid—including reimbursement for interns.
• Success story: Medicaid reimbursement victory in Arkansas.

What Can You Do?

There are a number of ways that you can get involved in efforts to advance reimbursement for psychological services provided by interns.

• Collaborate with leaders of your local psychological association if your state needs legislative and regulatory changes. Begin by asking the association's leadership for time during an upcoming board meeting to discuss this topic. At the meeting, present the internship crisis video. Then, lead a discussion covering the following questions:
  1. In our state, does Medicaid reimburse for services provided by doctoral interns?
  2. How might Medicaid reimbursement affect internships and the workforce pipeline in our state?
  3. Who would be willing to champion this issue?
• Share the story of your state or training program's progress, or stand up as a state imbursement champion to help others achieve success. Contact us today.
• Join the APAGS discussion group about internships: APAGSINTERNSHIP. You do not have to be a member of APAGS or APA to participate.

How To Get Started In Your State

To find out how to advance the issue in your state based on the current status of reimbursement, it is important to understand the general steps in the process. To do that, answer a few simple questions.