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Detroit · Friday, August 21, 2026

We showed up.

Michigan counselors, social workers, clients and families stood together outside Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan headquarters at 600 East Lafayette Boulevard, with MMHCA and NASW Michigan, over a billing change that would cut limited licensed clinicians out of private practice care on March 1, 2027.

Demonstrators with signs fill the sidewalk in front of the 600 Blue Cross Blue Shield building entrance; one sign reads "CITE YOUR EVIDENCE, BCBS."
Marchers move along the sidewalk chanting, one using a bullhorn and another playing a drum, with signs reading "PATIENTS DESERVE ACCESS" and "PROTECT PATIENTS PROTECT ACCESS."
A speaker with a microphone raises a fist while addressing the rally, with a portable speaker and bullhorn on the pavement and supporters standing behind.
A person speaks into a microphone while others clap and hold signs reading "I FIGHT 4 MY CLIENTS" and "LIMITED LICENSE = UNLIMITED IMPACT."
A speaker holding a microphone points upward while addressing the crowd, with signs behind reading "WE NEED MORE MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONALS NOT LESS."
Four people hold signs along a fence in front of the 600 Blue Cross Blue Shield building, including "OUR CLIENTS DESERVE CONTINUITY OF CARE" and "Patients OVER Profits."
Demonstrators stand along a sidewalk holding hand-lettered signs reading "You can't fix a provider shortage by cutting providers" and "Incident-to billing saves lives."
A person holds a whiteboard sign reading "Protect Mental Health Access Across Michigan" in front of a building marked 600 Blue Cross Blue Shield.
Four demonstrators hold signs including one reading "Mental Health Matters Except To BCBS" and one held overhead reading "PROTECT MENTAL HEALTHCARE."
A close view of two hands holding a cardboard sign lettered "PEOPLE OVER PROFIT" at chest height on a street.
Two people hold signs on a sidewalk, one reading "TAKE THE BS OUT OF BCBS, MENTAL HEALTH MATTERS" and one describing a family who will lose their therapist in March.
A wide view of about forty people with signs lined along the sidewalk and fence outside a large office building at a street corner.
Demonstrators along an iron fence hold signs reading "PEOPLE OVER PROFIT" and "Patients OVER Profits" as one records on a phone.
Demonstrators stand at a crosswalk holding signs reading "Patients OVER Profits," "TAKE THE BS OUT OF BCBS" and "I love my Limited License Therapist."
Five demonstrators stand along a landscaped roadside with signs including "Disrupting Care = Unethical Malpractice" and "Which of our 70 BCBS clients should I cut first?"
Demonstrators line a grass strip beside a roadway holding matching "PEOPLE OVER PROFITS" signs and one reading "CHOICE MATTERS, Let Clients Make the Choice."
A person stands at the roadside holding a sign reading "HEY BLUE CROSS, SUPERVISED DOES NOT MEAN UNQUALIFIED."
A person seated in a folding chair holds a sign reading "BCBS Show me the Data" beside a large Blue Cross Blue Shield logo sign.
A person holds a "PEOPLE OVER profit" sign on a wooden stake beside another reading "LLPCs adhere to duty to do no harm. How about you, BCBS?"
A sign reading "Incident-to billing improves access and care" leans against a lamppost base beside a person seated on a step.
A person raises one arm while holding a sign reading "CHOICE MATTERS, Let Clients Make the Choice," with a "PEOPLE OVER profit" sign raised nearby.
A person holds a whiteboard reading "Protect Mental Health Access Across Michigan" while others behind hold signs including "TRYING TO MEET A NEED, TIRED OF THE GREED."
Two adults in matching Wild Ferns Wellness shirts stand with a child, holding signs reading "Our Clients Chose Us, BCBSM is limiting their choice."
People in a circle applaud during the rally; a sign behind them reads "PROUD SOCIAL WORKER, SEE US, SUPPORT US, PAY US."
Two people chant with raised arms and papers in hand beside a sign reading "BCBS: treating mental health like a clearance rack."
A person raises a paper sign reading "PEOPLE OVER PROFIT" toward passing traffic on a downtown street.
A person holds a sign reading "PATIENT CARE OVER BCBSMI PROFITS" beside another asking why access to mental health care is being blocked.
A wide shot of roughly twenty demonstrators spread along a curb and median with signs including "PEOPLE OVER PROFITS" and "VALUE PRE-LICENSED THERAPISTS."
A person holds a sign reading "We Stand with LLPCs, LLMSWs and LLMFTs" while others walk and raise papers on the sidewalk behind.
Demonstrators hold signs reading "BCBS, stop making barriers to care" and "Mental Health Matters" at the roadside.

Photographs from the day. Reproduce them for non-commercial advocacy with credit to MMHCA.

What we asked BCBSM for

Three things, none of them unusual.

One

Keep the supervised billing framework. The five Blue Cross plans operated by Health Care Service Corporation, in Texas, Illinois, Oklahoma, Montana and New Mexico, published the identical guidance on the same day, May 12, 2026: reimbursement for trainee-rendered behavioral health services through a formal supervisor-trainee relationship, billed under the supervising clinician’s credential, with no currently required modifier and no published payment reduction. These are cited examples from those plans’ own published policy, not a survey of every Blue plan.

Two

Retain the SA modifier, so every supervised claim stays visible and auditable. Transparency was never the problem here.

Three

Define supervision standards in writing. If the concern is quality, set the standard and hold practices to it rather than removing the pathway.

Who spoke

Abdul El-Sayed, Rep. Mike McFall, Rep. Kim Edwards, Sen. Rosemary Bayer, Chris Gilmer-Hill, Caitlin and Noel of Healer’s Choice, and Chris DeBoer of MMHCA, alongside the clinicians, clients and families who organized and attended.

Jess Riley, Policy and Advocacy Manager at NASW Michigan, coordinated the event. Thank you to everyone who made the day possible, including the many others organizing around this issue.

Coverage

The press was there.

Detroit Free Press · August 21, 2026 Photo gallery from the rally CBS News Detroit · August 21, 2026 Protesters gather at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan headquarters after policy changes Bridge Michigan · June 11, 2026 Michigan Blue Cross to limit mental health benefit. Will thousands lose care? Psychology Today · June 26, 2026 New Insurance Policy on Limited Licensed Therapists

The protest is over. This is not.

Phase 2 takes effect March 1, 2027. Until it does, the decision is still open. The statewide impact assessment, with all 2,769 responses and the methodology, is published in full.

Read the impact assessment Take action Join MMHCA