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Providers urge statutory clarification to preserve reimbursement for clinical trainees
Summary
Children's mental health provider groups asked the conference committee to confirm in statute that clinical trainees are part of the reimbursable mental‑health workforce, saying a for‑profit plan's billing change threatens care access without clarification.
Kirsten Anderson, executive director of Aspire Minnesota, asked the conference committee to include language (article 3, section 11) clarifying that clinical trainees are part of the reimbursed mental‑health workforce.
Anderson said the clarification "simply restates current policy and practice" and is necessary because a for‑profit commercial plan circulated a billing change that would withhold reimbursement for services delivered by trainees unless state statute explicitly included them. She compared clinical trainees to medical interns and said they deliver supervised care under a supervisor’s oversight.
Committee members asked whether services billed by code would be reimbursed at the same code level and how employer compensation differs from billed rates; Anderson and others explained that billing occurs by code while organizations determine internal compensation, meaning billing rates do not directly set employee salaries.
The testimony closed with the sponsor asking the committee to include the clarification in the conference report; no committee vote was recorded in the transcript.
