TRICARE: Certified Mental Health Counselors

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This rule is submitted as an interim final rule (IFR) in order to meet the Congressional requirement set forth in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2011, Section 724, which required the Department of Defense to prescribe regulations by June 20, 2011, to establish the criteria, as had previously been studied in accordance with Section 717 of the NDAA 2008, that would allow licensed or certified mental health counselors to be able to independently provide care to TRICARE beneficiaries and receive payment for those services. Under current TRICARE requirements, mental health counselors (MHCs) are authorized to practice only with physician referral and supervision. This interim final rule establishes a transition period to phase out the requirement for physician referral and supervision for MHCs and to create a new category of allied health professionals, to be known as certified mental health counselors (CMHCs), who will be authorized to practice independently under TRICARE. During this transition period the MHCs who do not meet the requirements for independent practice as established in this rule, may continue to provide services to TRICARE beneficiari