My View: Let’s Cover Art Therapy

We are in the throes of a mental health provider shortage, especially for those New York residents who rely on Medicaid.

Gov. Kathy Hochul can make it easier for 2,200 mental-health clinicians to provide services to people on Medicaid. A bill on her desk would expand coverage to services provided by licensed creative arts therapists (LCATs), just as the program now pays for mental health counseling and marriage and family therapy. The state has licensed creative art therapists since 2006.

Hochul must sign or veto the bill — along with about 100 others that await action — by Tuesday (Dec. 24), the final business day in 2024. (If she does nothing, the bill will effectively be vetoed.) If enacted, the law would go into effect in 90 days.

The bill (A9018) passed the state Senate, 56-5, with the support of Rob Rolison, whose district includes the Highlands, and the Assembly, 143-2, with support from Dana Levenberg, whose district includes Philipstown, and Jonathan Jacobson, whose district includes Beacon.

Throughout my 25 years of providing creative arts therapy, I have seen firsthand how some clients respond to alternatives to talk therapy to heal. For example, after spending much time, money and stress on conventional therapy for their young son, a family was connected to me through a nonprofit that finds pro-bono therapists for those in need.

It did not surprise me that the boy could not speak about the atrocious violence he had witnessed or the trauma of moving through a series of foster homes. I spent three years engaging with him through art therapy, which allowed him to explore his emotions and experiences from a safe distance. He used drawing, origami, sand tray stories and meditation to better understand and express his feelings, fears and memories. Imagine the relief if this boy had access to art therapy sooner.

According to the state Department of Health, there are 1.9 million people enrolled in Medicaid upstate. At the same time, New York universities offer 15 master’s degree programs in creative arts psychotherapy, including seven in art, two in dance/movement, one in drama and five in music — the most of any state.

Under this bill, all those graduates potentially could immediately expand the number of therapists available to those using Medicaid. According to a directory compiled by Psychology Today, there are at least 17 licensed creative arts therapists in Beacon and Philipstown, and I know that list is incomplete.

We’ve been down this road before. On the last business day of 2022, Hochul signed a law that required blanket health policies to include coverage for outpatient treatment by state-licensed mental health counselors. But in a signing memo, she removed creative arts therapists, citing the potential cost. Two previous bills also excluded art therapy.

Maya Benattar, a music therapist from Westchester County who co-founded the LCAT Advocacy Coalition, pointed out at the time that Hochul’s concerns about costs made no sense. Several large insurers, including Cigna, UnitedHealthcare and Aetna, cover art psychotherapy and art therapists use the same billing codes as other mental health practitioners.

The New York Art Therapy Association predicted the 2022 removal would “have a significant and highly detrimental impact on the availability of affordable mental health services” by limiting options for those who don’t have private insurance.

Let’s hope the governor gets it right this time.