BY INVITATION ONLY

Assuring the Sustainability of Psychology Internship Training

The sustainability of doctoral internships is essential to produce a robust clinical psychology workforce.  The youth lifetime prevalence of mental illness is 46.3% while for adults the corresponding figure is 55.3%.  Barely half of all of those who suffer from psychiatric illness receive care and for most, this comes by their primary care providers.  From the training perspective, a large gap in the number of doctoral psychology internship placements available, 20.4% in 2012 narrowed to 11.9% in 2014 with further narrowing reported in 2016. This narrowing is due in part to external funding, largely from the federal government and the APA. For example, two federal grant programs, Now is the Time and Graduate Psychology Education, currently fund 40 institutions that sponsor psychology internships with a contribution of approximately $26.1 million. The 2012 APA internship stimulus program contributed an additional $3 million.  However, as times and resources change, these internship programs will need to be sustained independently.

In this three-hour program designed for clinical supervisors, program administrators, and agency finance personnel, we will present strategies to increase income in order to offset the cost of internship training, thereby maximizing sustainability. Presenters will include Michael Goldberg PhD, past President and past Director of Professional Affairs for the Massachusetts Psychological Association, who will present on maximizing revenues, and Caroline Bergner, JD, who is Policy and Advocacy fellow in the Education Directorate of the American Psychological Association and has worked nationally on advancing Medicaid reimbursement for psychology interns. Ed Zadravec PsyD of Wediko will describe a contract model and Bruce Ecker Ph.D. of William James College will present data on Massachusetts reimbursement rates, thereby suggesting ways to balance income and costs.  Formal presentations will be complemented by discussion among attendees, with a focus on how to sustain internship training locally.

Specific learning objectives:

1. Explain how Medicaid benefits participants.

2. Discuss how Medicaid reimbursement for services provided by psychology interns is important to help sustain training programs. 

3. Describe two myths about the difficulties in seeking reimbursement for interns’ services.

4. Identify underused CPT reimbursement codes that, once used, will substantially increase intern revenue.
5. Describe methods to increase insurance reimbursement, thereby facilitating increased funding and sustainability.

PIT3| 3 CE Credits | FREE

Pre-Registration REQUIRED

Caroline Bergner, JD, is an attorney and Policy and Advocacy fellow in the Education Directorate of the American Psychological Association. She works closely alongside other attorneys in the department of Legal and Regulatory Affairs in the Practice Directorate. She focuses on issues related to Medicaid policy and reimbursement, and state level advocacy. Prior to APA, Caroline worked in disability policy and government relations, interned for a Judge at Florida’s 3^rd District Court of Appeals and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida. Caroline has a degree in psychology and neuroscience from Duke University, and graduated cum laude from Ave Maria School of Law.

Michael A. Goldberg, PhD, is a Past President and past Director of Professional Affairs for MPA. Dr. Goldberg is also the Director of Child & Family Psychological Services, Inc./Integrated Behavioral Associates. He is has also served on the provider advisor council for several major health plans and consults to behavioral health entities around the country.  Dr. Goldberg is the recipient of multiple Presidential Citations from MPA; the Carl Heiser Award for Advocacy from APA Practice Organization and the Ted Blau Early Career award from the APA Society of Clinical Psychology.