Licensed Mental Health Counselors (LMHCs) and Licensed Professional Counselors (LPCs) have been legitimate mental health care providers for several decades, and are fully recognized by all private insurance companies, yet Medicare has yet to amend their current standards of care so LMHCs and LPCs can be providers, just as LICSWs and psychologists are.
The only reason why it hasn't happened yet is because the bills it gets attached to keep dying before they become law, a symptom of how broken Washington is right now.
The bottom line is patients are suffering. There is a dearth of mental health therapists out there who take Medicare as it is, and as we wind down two wars and have thousands of soldiers coming over with PTSD, we need all the help we can get.