Legislative Advocacy for Michigan LPCs | MMHCA
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Advocacy · education · community

Your voice in Lansing.

Decisions that change what a Michigan counselor may do get made in committee rooms, not in clinics. MMHCA puts your dues into professional representation, so counselors are in those rooms while a policy is still a draft.

The Acuitas partnership · since 2018

Representation that gets taken seriously.

Since 2018 MMHCA has worked with Acuitas, one of Michigan’s leading lobbying firms, to represent counselors in the legislative process and defend the counseling profession.

Acuitas brings healthcare policy expertise, established relationships with the legislators who matter to this profession, and a sense of timing. Their daily monitoring of bills, committee activity and regulatory change is what lets MMHCA respond in days rather than find out afterward.

The work is not purely defensive. It is also how the profession advances: better reimbursement, protected scope of practice, and a seat at the table when Michigan writes mental health policy.

What professional advocacy buys

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The Acuitas wordmark beside the dome of the Michigan State Capitol, with the tagline insight, perception, sharpness
Acuitas has represented MMHCA at the Michigan Capitol since 2018.
Without professional representation, decisions affecting your practice get made without your input.

2019: the fight for our license

What the partnership looks like under pressure.

When a regulatory change threatened the LPC scope of practice, MMHCA and Acuitas moved fast. House Bill 4325 was signed into law as Public Act 96 of 2019, protecting counselors’ ability to diagnose and treat.

It is the clearest illustration of why the retainer exists. Ten thousand counselors were mobilized, 54,000 people signed a petition inside a month, and the bill passed 108-0 in the House and 38-0 in the Senate before the rule could take effect.

The full 2019 chronology
MMHCA board members with Michigan state officials at the signing of the legislation
Public Act 96 of 2019. The statute MMHCA drafted and won.

Meet your legislative advocate

The person doing the work.

Martin Johnston, Legislative Director at Acuitas

Martin Johnston

Legislative Director, Acuitas

Former Chief of Staff to State Senator Roger Victory, and previously Legislative Director to State Senator Wayne Schmidt as Assistant Majority Leader. Specialized expertise in appropriations, education and healthcare policy. Political Science graduate of Grand Valley State University.

That background matters in a specific way: appropriations experience is what turns a good argument about mental health services into a line in a budget.

Current focus

Budget advocacy for mental health services, daily monitoring of the Counseling Compact legislation with its protective safeguards, insurance parity, and coalition building with the other bodies that share these interests.

Hear it directly

Martin reports to the board in person each month. The recordings that are cleared for release are posted here. It is the least filtered account of what is actually happening in Lansing.

Watch Martin’s legislative report

Legislative priorities

Six fronts, worked at once.

What the association is pushing for, and pushing back on, this session.

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Case study: insurance clawbacks

One meeting in 2025. A bill in 2026.

A clawback is a payer reclaiming money already paid for care already delivered, often months later. MMHCA named it the association’s top legislative priority, and this is what that produced.

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Three MMHCA representatives outside the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing on the day of the meeting
At the Capitol in Lansing. Advocacy at this level is a small number of people turning up repeatedly.

What HB 5478 would do

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Read HB 5478 as introduced

Coordinated with NASW-Michigan, the Michigan Psychological Association and other statewide health professional organizations.

In the committee room

Somebody has to be the one who shows up.

Testimony is a member of your board taking a morning off practice, driving to Lansing, and putting the profession’s case on the record where it counts.

Carol Berger, LPC, reading testimony at a microphone before the Michigan House Health Policy Committee, with a House TV lower-third reading House Bill 4981
MMHCA Secretary Carol Berger, LPC, testifying on House Bill 4981 before the House Health Policy Committee, November 5, 2025. House TV.

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Watch or read

MMHCA publishes its testimony, board meetings and legislative reports to the MMHCA Library, so members can see what was said on their behalf.

Watch the record

Legislative reports and testimony, unedited.

Monthly reports from our lobbyist, testimony before House committees, and press coverage, on the association’s own channel.

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The full archive of board meetings, legislative reports and testimony lives on the MMHCA Library.

A witness speaking into a table microphone at a legislative hearing, gesturing to make a point, with three committee members listening
Every gate below is a room like this one. A bill moves when somebody is in it.

How a bill becomes law in Michigan

Six gates, and where we stand at each one.

A bill has to clear all six to become law, and it dies if it fails any one of them. This is what MMHCA does at each gate, and why timing rather than enthusiasm decides outcomes.

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Real bills, against the same six gates

Some clear all six inside a single year. Others sit at one gate for months, waiting on a committee chair who has not scheduled a hearing. Where a bill is stuck tells you exactly who to call.

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Bill positions as of July 30, 2026. Verify against the Michigan Legislature’s own record before relying on this.

Who we work with

Nobody wins alone in Lansing.

A committee chair counts letters. A payer counts providers. Legislation moves when several professions say the same thing at once.

MMHCA is a counselors’ association, and counselors are not the only profession affected by most of what we work on. So we build coalitions: sometimes as convener, sometimes as one signature among several. These are the organizations we have actually worked alongside, and what the work was.

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Bookmark these

Where a rule is written, we would rather send you to the body that wrote it than paraphrase it here. These are the pages worth keeping to hand.

We link to these organizations because their material is useful. Each speaks only for itself, and a link here does not mean they endorse MMHCA.

Join MMHCA

Dues are what pay for all of this.

A full-time legislative advocate in Lansing, monthly consultation groups, the Medicare and private practice Q&As, continuing education, and timely notice when a rule changes.

Annual dues

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Dues are set by the board and collected through the association’s membership system. Confirm the current rate on the join form before paying.

Take five minutes

Write the four people who can move this.

Two in Lansing, two in Washington. Legislative offices count contacts from constituents and discount everything else, so the address you write from matters more than the words you use. Say you are a Michigan counselor, name the bill, say what it does to your practice, and ask for a position.

Michigan · state senate

Your state senator

HB 4591, the Counseling Compact bill, has sat in Senate Health Policy since October 30, 2025. The Senate is where it stops or moves, so this is the single highest-value contact on the page.

Michigan · state house

Your state representative

HB 4981 passed the House 109-0 and HB 5478, the clawback bill, is sitting in House Insurance with no recorded action. Your representative is the one who can ask why.

Federal · us senate

Both Michigan US senators

S. 4202 would raise counselor reimbursement from 75% to 85% of the psychologist rate. It is still in committee. Michigan has two senators and both of them count.

Federal · us house

Your member of congress

H.R. 8081 is the House companion to the 85% bill. One message from a constituent who bills Medicare is worth more than a form letter from anyone else.

If you would rather not start from a blank page

The coalition keeps pre-written letters you can send in about a minute, and MMHCA will take your story to the people who need to hear it.