Equal Access to Addiction Treatment is Your Right!
How many times have we seen someone sitting through a 15-30min intake phone-screen only to be told by a treatment provider, they don't accept their insurance. Or having the insurance company claim coverage, but then decline it because treatment is out-of-network? Or having such high deductables, there is no way for someone to come up with that kind of cash. And after all that, being left with only option to seek state funded facility which never has any beds!
Call back tomorrow, they said ....
The 2008 Federal Parity Law requires insurers to cover illnesses of the brain, such as depression or addiction, no more restrictively than illnesses of the body, such as diabetes or cancer. Yet insurers continue to deny coverage or limit treatment options for those with mental health or addiction challenges.
Insurer violations of mental health parity laws can take many forms, including placing limits on how long and how often patients can receive care, providing insufficient networks of mental health providers, and more.
Despite of Connecticut adding new Statutes, Regulations and Monitoring mechanisms to support the Partity Law, access to treatment continues to be a challenge.
SO WHAT CAN YOU DO?
- Hold insurance companies accountable. Learn to file an appeal with your health plan. Here are some resources that you can use: Appeal Guide and Connecticut Parity Resources.
- Register a complaint against your health plan so we can hold insurers accountable: Parity Registry Complaint
- Tell us about it. Send us an email to CT Recovery Advocacy Project Team or come to our next meeting on Oct 26th 7pm (register here)
SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT FOR THE FUTURE DISCUSSIONS:
Sept 21, 2021 - Unite State Senate recently announced a new initiative to address barriers to mental health and substance use care, requesting information on potential policy solutions. Specifically, the letter requests “evidence-based solutions and ideas to enhance behavioral health care.”
“Far too often, individuals across the country struggle to access timely, quality mental health care and substance use disorder services, and the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated unmet behavioral health care needs,” Wyden and Crapo wrote. “Today, we seek input from stakeholders across the health care continuum to help us better understand how Congress can address these challenges. Our goal is to develop a bipartisan legislative package before the end of the year addressing many of the behavioral health care challenges currently faced by millions of Americans.”
