CHARLESTON — Even though the hourly pay is considerably lower, licensed counselors are willing to accept Medicaid patients in West Virginia out of a desire to help the distraught, one of them advised a legislative panel Monday.

Lisa Kaplan told Government Organization Subcommittee C that only 11 states now provide Medicaid reimbursement for services provided by licensed professional counselors.

There are some 1,061 such counselors working in private practice in West Virginia, and an informal survey showed most would take Medicaid patients, if they were reimbursed at the going rate of $50 an hour, Kaplan said.

Kaplan operates a private practice in Barboursville known as Oasis Behavioral Health and serves as the legislative advocacy committee chair for the West Virginia Licensed Professional Counselors Association.

Only if counselors work at mental health or community health centers are they allowed Medicaid reimbursement, she said.

In private practice, counselors are paid more than double the Medicaid rate, she said.

“I think all of us, including social workers, got into this field to help people be more emotionally healthy,” she said.

“The more mentally healthy we are, the more physically healthy we are, and more spiritually healthy. It’s part of our belief that we need to give back to our citizens.”

Kaplan said there is a shortage of such counselors in southern counties.

Sen. Dan Foster, D-Kanawha, a co-chair of the committee, raised the specter of the drug epidemic in West Virginia and how this plays out in the work of counselors.

While drug addiction figures prominently into their work, Kaplan said the services are multi-faceted.

“These scenarios would cover anything from an adjustment to a divorce, to keeping kids in classrooms and making good grades, to complicated grief, marital difficulties, depression and anxiety, personality disorders, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder — just all types of therapy,” she explained.

Kaplan said many patients suffer depression and use substances to self-medicate.

“There is a lot of substance abuse,” she said.

Sam Hickman, chief executive officer for the state chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, told the panel that 80 percent of primary care problems are saddled with a behavioral or mental health component.

“This underscores the dramatic need for concurrent behavioral health services to help people function optimally in the face of chronic disease and life-management issues,” Hickman said.

Hickman told the committee there are some 300 independent clinical social workers in the state, most of them working in psychiatric facilities and mental health agencies providing psychotherapy, counseling, supervision and administration.

West Virginia’s match would be $80,000, if 200 clinical social workers covered an average of 10 Medicaid clients weekly through the year, he said.

“What is most significant however is that additional Medicaid clients will have access to mental health therapy for problems they have not been able to address — problems such as addiction, depression, behavior management, mental illnesses and personality disorders — problems which prevent individuals and families from being healthy and functioning well in society,” he said.

— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com