Will your insurance pay for the Mental Health care you want?
The answer is usually NO
See the 3 Reasons Why
Mental Health has never been more important. Our entire culture is waking up to understanding and accepting that fact. We are getting rid of old stigmas and prejudices about mental health. We are seeking ways to prevent and treat mental illness as exactly that: illness. Illness that deserves professional, and efficient treatment.
In therapy, people get skills that make them stronger and more confident. Skills that enhance the capacity to live with more serenity and joy.
You bought insurance expecting to have access to health care. Including mental health care. But you probably won’t get the mental health care that you want. You probably won’t have access to the high-quality and personal care that you expect. Because most insurance companies usually make it hard to get the treatment that you want and need.
Here are the 3 major obstacles to getting high-quality personal care when you have insurance.
1. You have to pay thousands of dollars before your insurance pays for treatment.
Most insurance policies have a “deductible”. A deductible is an amount of money that you have to pay before your insurance company pays anything.
You have to pay thousands of dollars before your insurance pays for any treatment. Common deductibles are as high as $5,000, $7,000, and $10,000. Insurance companies will not pay for any treatment before you pay these amounts.
And, providers of health care can’t waive these deductibles. If a health care provider doesn’t collect deductibles, to help people get help, they get in trouble. Insurance companies will accuse them of “enticing” people to get treatment. Will threaten them with fines, and even accuse them of fraud.
2. You can’t choose your treatment.
When the insurance company finally begins to pay for your treatment, they will take charge of it. The insurance company will determine what therapy they will pay for, and for how long. You, your doctor, and your therapist will not have a choice about what kind of treatment you will receive. The insurance company will decide the amount of treatment that you can receive. Regardless of what your doctor or therapist recommends.
3. No personal treatment.
Insurance companies decide how much they pay for treatment. The rates that they pay are usually less than the cost of delivering personal care. They encourage health care providers to see many clients to lower costs. For example, let’s say that a doctor, or therapist, dedicates 1 hour to you. And gets paid $25 dollars for that hour. Because the insurance company has decided that $25 is what they want to pay. But, the expense for dedicating 1 hour to you alone is $100. Because it’s expensive to provide high-quality and personal service. This is true in any area of life. The doctor or therapist providing you personal service would lose $75.00 every hour that they would work for what the insurance company pays them. They could not provide private and personal treatment for very long, and stay in business. There is only one way that they could stay in business. They would have to see 4 patients per hour. That means that they would have to rush you through a 15-minute session. You would get wholesale care. Instead of the personal care that you deserve.
What you can do:
A. Shop for better insurance benefits.
Check the deductible amounts. Sometimes is better to pay a little more in monthly premiums. A little higher premium may get you lower deductibles that you can afford when you need care.
B. Check your benefits with your insurance company.
If you need care and they deny it, fight them. Insist on the care that you want and need. Get a dedicated provider that will help you.
C. Avoid wholesale providers of care.
Big is not Better in health care. Many providers have found a way to make money providing wholesale care. They rely on volume. Treating many people at a time reduces cost, and improves profit. The cost to you is a loss of personal care
D. Don’t compromise.
Your health and the health of your family are too important. Consider the cost of care. But consider the cost of not getting care. Not getting care can cost you everything.
We will not compromise either. We will provide high-quality and very personal care. We will strive to get your insurance company to pay you the most benefits to reduce your cost of care. But we will never sacrifice your care. We will not lower our standards of excellent care to fit lower standards set by insurance companies. Your well-being. Your family’s well-being. They mean everything to us.