In case you missed it, a new study uncovers how corporate insurers continue to put their pursuit of profits ahead of patients’ wellbeing by delaying and denying access to critical mental health services and perpetuating an “astonishing gap” in mental health coverage. At the same time, mental health advocates and experts are sharing how corporate insurers’ practices create “nightmare stories about Americans not getting the treatment that they needed because insurance companies were denying them care.”
As NPR reports:
Roughly two-thirds of Americans with a diagnosed mental health condition were unable to access treatment in 2021, though they had health insurance. And only a third of insured people who visited an emergency department or hospital during a mental health crisis, received follow-up care within a month of being discharged.
These are among the findings of a new report by the actuary firm Milliman, released Wednesday. The mental health advocacy group, Inseparable, commissioned the report and also released an accompanying brief offering policy solutions to address the gaps in mental healthcare…
While the overall findings aren’t surprising, “it is striking that the access impediments remain what they are,” adds [psychotherapist and attorney Meiram] Bendat who founded PsychAppeal, a law firm focused on mental health insurance advocacy. Those barriers include a workforce shortage, poor reimbursement rates for providers, and “substandard enforcement” of consumer protections and laws requiring that insurance companies cover mental health conditions…
The Inseparable solutions report also recommends that insurance companies be mandated to provide up-to-date accurate directories for in-network providers.
“The problem with these in-network directories is that when you begin to call around and you begin to ask people, ‘Can you see me? Are you accepting new patients?’ The answer to a lot of them is no, they’re not accepting new patients,” says Miller. “Some provider directories are old enough that you might even have people on there that are not practicing anymore.”
But requiring health plans to cover out-of-network care is also crucial, say Miller and his colleagues.
“The insurance company should pay that cost to cover your care regardless of whether or not it’s in their network or not,” says Smith. “It’s a huge problem when you have people that are making decisions about their health and the safety of their families and doing that from a place of scarcity.”
Speaking to NPR, Inseparable founder Bill Smith warns that “the gap in mental health treatment ‘won’t close unless private insurance companies’ take steps to increase access to mental healthcare,” adding: “’We have a long way to go.’”
- To read the full story by NPR, click here.
- To read Milliman’s full report for Inseparable, click here.