Office Hours Notice

MPA Phones are staffed Monday - Friday from 10:00 am - 2:00 pm. If you call outside of these hours, please leave a voicemail and a staff member will return your call as soon as possible. The best way to reach MPA staff is to email them at [email protected].

Please note that the MPA office is undergoing renovations beginning mid-December 2023 and in-person staffing may be adjusted due to construction issues (noise, dust, etc.). We appreciate your patience as we improve our work space. 

Thank you! 

 

 

Conference Important Dates & Deadlines
Hotel Room Block Deadline
Need a hotel reservation?  Discounted room rate is $133 per night. 
Reservations need to be received by Friday, March 15th.
Reservations can be made online here, or by calling the Sheraton Bloomington Hotel directly at 952-935-1900 and request the MN Psychological Association Room Block to receive the discounted $133 group rate.

88th Annual Conference Student Scholarship
MPA joins professionals and students through the power of giving. If you are a student requesting a scholarship to attend the event, please complete the information below. The deadline to request a scholarship to attend the conference is Friday, March 22, 2024. You will be notified of the scholarship amount on Monday, March 25, 2024. You can then register for the conference using the discount code provided in the email notifying you of the scholarship amount.  Click here for the form.


 

MPA Affirms APA Policy Statement Affirming Evidence-Based Inclusive Care for Transgender, Gender Divisive, and Nonbinary Individuals

03-03-2024

The Minnesota Psychological Association stands in solidarity with the American Psychological Association's Policy Statement affirming support of unobstructed access to healthcare and evidence-based clinical care for transgender, gender diverse, and nonbinary children, adolescents, and adults, and for increased public accessibility to timely and accurate information founded in clinical and psychological science. 

 

Change in MN Health Plans

Many psychologists in MN are not in network with insurance plans, which reduces access to high quality psychological services for consumers. The legislature passed a law last session requiring local insurance plans to accept any willing qualified provider, from now through June 2025.

Here is information about the legal change that temporarily requires Minnesota health plans to open their networks for enrollment of all qualified providers. Several of the health plans have significantly increased their rates for doctoral providers, so if reimbursement levels have been a concern for you in the past, this could be a good time to reevaluate your interest in joining networks.

Mental health advocates have long been concerned about the higher proportion of people who choose to pay privately for their mental health services for reasons of not being able to find qualified providers who are in their insurance networks. While consumers may still choose to go out of network for a variety of reasons, one of the goals of this legal change is to improve the adequacy of networks.

Here is the relevant section of the statute.
Minnesota Statute: Section 62Q.096 - CREDENTIALING OF PROVIDERS
(b) In order to ensure timely access by patients to mental health services, between July 1, 2023, and June 30, 2025, a health plan company must credential and enter into a contract for mental health services with any provider of mental health services that:(1) meets the health plan company's credential requirements. For purposes of credentialing under this paragraph, a health plan company may waive credentialing requirements that are not directly related to quality of care in order to ensure patient access to providers from underserved communities or to providers in rural areas;(2) seeks to receive a credential from the health plan company;(3) agrees to the health plan company's contract terms. The contract shall include payment rates that are usual and customary for the services provided;(4) is accepting new patients; and (5) is not already under a contract with the health plan company under a separate tax identification number or, if already under a contract with the health plan company, has provided notice to the health plan company of termination of the existing contract.
(c)A health plan company shall not refuse to credential these providers on the grounds that their provider network has:(1) a sufficient number of providers of that type, including but not limited to the provider types identified in paragraph (a); or (2) a sufficient number of providers of mental health services in the aggregate.

MA LPs - Medicare Providers

Some MPA representatives met with APA representatives last week for a briefing on the enrollment of MA LPs as Medicare providers.  We learned that APA Services asked CMS to also recognize psychologists with masters degrees as eligible providers.

CMS ultimately issued this comment in the final rule, “In response to the comments received on the variation in nomenclature used across States for mental health counselors, we wish to make clear that individuals who meet all of the applicable statutory and regulatory qualifications for the mental health counselor benefit category for education and clinical supervised experience, but are licensed or certified by their State under a different title to furnish mental health counseling, are eligible to enroll in Medicare under the Part B ‘‘mental health counselor’’ statutory benefit category.”

However, APA staff imagine that some MA LP psychologists could experience challenges in the enrollment process as the Medicare contractors implement this change.  Please contact the MPA office 
[email protected] to share your success or issues with the enrollment process.  APA’s Office of Health Care Financing  ([email protected]) wants to be kept informed if MA LP’s are not successful in enrolling in Medicare as “mental health counselors.”

Here are some resources to help with the enrollment process. 
Become a Medicare Provider or Supplier | CMS
marriage-and-family-therapists-and-mental-health-counselors-faq-09052023.pdf (cms.gov)

Special thanks to Dana Fox, Ph.D., LP for her efforts on this topic!



June 30, 2023

MPA Stands with APA to Denounce Recent Supreme Court Decisions

The Minnesota Psychological Association stands in solidarity with the American Psychological Association in denouncing two recent Supreme Court rulings. 

  • Right to consider race in college admissions: "...(we) deeply regret that the court discounted the substantial body of research demonstrating that exposure to diversity can reduce bias and improve educational outcomes for all students,” said APA CEO Arthur C. Evans Jr., PhD.  APA argued that improving racial-ethnic diversity in higher education remains a compelling need as prejudice and underrepresentation of racial and ethnic minority groups are still present on college campuses today. 
  • Discrimination of same sex couples:  “We are disappointed that the court granted permission to individuals to discriminate in providing their services in a way that is contrary to the goals of Colorado’s anti-discrimination law,” said APA Chief Executive Officer Arthur C. Evans Jr., PhD. “Research has shown that laws like Colorado’s can decrease stigma and associated adverse health consequences. By allowing discrimination in public accommodations, the court is preventing Colorado from curtailing the discrimination experienced by LGBTQ people and members of other disfavored groups, and the harmful stress that ensues.” 

 

 

Meet MPA Member Dr. Marina Bluvshtein.  Marina Bluvshtein, Ph.D., L.P., M.A., LMFT, is an Adlerian therapist, supervisor, educator, and researcher with Adler Academy.  She presents nationally and internationally on a wide range of topics related to Adlerian history, theory, education, and clinical practice. In addition to her practice in Minnesota, Dr. Bluvshtein is professor at Adler University in Chicago, IL, and Vancouver, BC. 

Click the video link above to learn more about Dr. Bluvshtein including her latest favorite book (The Courage to Be Disliked) and her mentors in the field of psychology. 

 

MPA Awards State Sen. Kelly Morrison With 2022 Legislator Of The Year Award

 

This past Monday, MPA awarded Minnesota state senator Kelly Morrison, MD with its Legislator of the Year award for her work as a representative during last year’s legislative session.  
 
At a small gathering with her on February 27th, MPA leadership and MPA Legislative Committee members presented the plaque honoring her with the award. MPA honored now-Senator Morrison for her outstanding work as the author on MPA’s provider tax bill, Medical Assistance Rates Adjustment bill, and other bills important to MPA in recent years. 
 
Of particular note, then-Representative Morrison was the chief author of the interstate psychology compact, known as PSYPACT, through the mostly virtual legislative process of the pandemic.  Due to her incredibly hard work, PSYPACT was only one of 12 bills that were signed into law during the entire 2021 session of the Legislature.  Additionally, she was also the chief author of the Telehelath law expansion, and worked with the health plans and DHS to provide for telephone only patient care as part of the Telehealth expansion.  


Legislative Grant from APA

MPA has received a legislative grant in the amount of $7,500 from APA Services, Inc. for expenses related to legislative efforts to address the Medicaid Rate Study and Provider Tax in MN. Thank you APA Services, Inc., including the APA Practice Directorate and the Committee for State Leaders (CSL) for administering this grant.

Thank you to Legislative Committee Co-Chairs Steve Girardeau and Dennis Hannon for facilitating the application of this grant. Their hard work and time spent on the application has helped MPA tremendously.

If you are interested in working on legislative issues that affect psychologists in Minnesota, this committee may be for you. Contact [email protected] to learn how to join the Legislative Committee.


 

 

Other updates:

Legislative Updates

VoterVoice Action Center

COVID-19 Resources

Racial Justice Resources

COVID Cares Phone Line

   


MPA Diversity Statement

The Minnesota Psychological Association actively encourages the participation of all psychologists regardless of age, creed, race, ethnic background, gender, socio-economic status, region of residence, physical or mental status, political beliefs, religious or spiritual affiliation, and sexual or affectional orientation. Although we are an organization of individuals from diverse cultures and backgrounds, the Minnesota Psychological Association also recognizes our core unifying identities as Psychologists who practice in America. We also recognize that we may hold unintentional attitudes and beliefs that influence our perceptions of and interactions with others. Within this context of unity and self-exploration, we are committed to increasing our sensitivity to all aspects of diversity as well as our knowledge and appreciation of the unique qualities of different cultures and backgrounds. We aspire to become alert to aspects of diversity, previously unseen or unacknowledged in our culture. In this spirit, we are committed to collaborating with multicultural groups to combat racism and other forms of prejudice as we seek to promote diversity in our society. To this end, we are dedicated to increasing our multicultural competencies and effectiveness as educators, researchers, administrators, policymakers, and practitioners.