How to use mental health benefits under commercial insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, and employer plans — including parity rules, appeals, and reducing out-of-pocket costs.
When Marcella, a 34-year-old Diné mother of three living on the Navajo Nation outside Shiprock, New Mexico, started waking up at 3 a.m. with chest-crushing panic attacks, she did what her grandmother told her to do. She drove the 41 miles to the nearest IHS facility. The intake clerk was kind. The waiting room was … Read more
Frank, a 78-year-old retired teacher in Sarasota, bought a long-term care insurance policy from Genworth in 2003 when he was 57. He had watched his mother’s Alzheimer’s progress through eight years and a $340,000 nursing home bill. The policy promised $200 daily benefit, 5% compound inflation rider, lifetime benefit period, 90-day elimination. Premiums were $2,800 … Read more
Frank, a 78-year-old retired teacher in Sarasota, bought a long-term care insurance policy from Genworth in 2003 when he was 57. He had watched his mother’s Alzheimer’s progress through eight years and a $340,000 nursing home bill. The policy promised $200 daily benefit, 5% compound inflation rider, lifetime benefit period, 90-day elimination. Premiums were $2,800 … Read more
Dr. Priya Reddy was an emergency medicine resident at a Boston teaching hospital, two years out from board certification, when her panic attacks crossed a line. She had managed them through medical school with therapy and a low-dose SSRI. The night a charge nurse found her hyperventilating in the supply closet during a mass-casualty drill, … Read more
Dr. Priya Reddy was an emergency medicine resident at a Boston teaching hospital, two years out from board certification, when her panic attacks crossed a line. She had managed them through medical school with therapy and a low-dose SSRI. The night a charge nurse found her hyperventilating in the supply closet during a mass-casualty drill, … Read more
The Largest Insurer of Mental Health Care You Probably Forgot When Americans talk about insurance for mental health care, the conversation usually orbits commercial plans. Employer health benefits. ACA marketplace coverage. Networks like UnitedHealthcare therapists, Aetna, Cigna, and Blue Cross Blue Shield. Almost forgotten in that conversation is the country’s largest single source of mental health funding: … Read more
The Largest Insurer of Mental Health Care You Probably Forgot When Americans talk about insurance for mental health care, the conversation usually orbits commercial plans. Employer health benefits. ACA marketplace coverage. Networks like UnitedHealthcare therapists, Aetna, Cigna, and Blue Cross Blue Shield. Almost forgotten in that conversation is the country’s largest single source of mental health funding: … Read more
Why Finding a Therapist Is Harder Than Finding a Cardiologist The American mental health care system has produced an unusual paradox. There are more licensed therapists in the United States today than at any point in history, and yet finding the right one for an individual patient remains a process that most people describe as frustrating, opaque, … Read more
Why Finding a Therapist Is Harder Than Finding a Cardiologist The American mental health care system has produced an unusual paradox. There are more licensed therapists in the United States today than at any point in history, and yet finding the right one for an individual patient remains a process that most people describe as frustrating, opaque, … Read more
The Performance Nobody Sees You sit down at your desk at 9:00 AM. You open your email. You join the Zoom meeting. You nod at the right moments. You laugh when your coworker makes a joke. You answer questions when asked. From the outside, you look like a perfectly functional employee. What your colleagues do … Read more