Be sure to see the p 20 soul food recipes chosen by readers this month, plus watch soul food experts cook the most popular southern dishes and watch the recipes come alive before your eyes. Go to. Nearly a third of NAMIsurvey respondents reported insurance companies denied authorization for mental health and substance abuse carebecause the insurance companiesdeemed the care notmedically necessary.In the absence of uniform criteria, insurers have adopted their own standards and have often not been forthcoming about informing beneficiaries about these standards, authors of the report wrote.
Some turn to suicide, and many end up inprison instead of receiving care.
Untreated mental illness can lead unemployment or homelessness, andpeoplemayturn to substance abuse to ‘self medicate’, that can make symptoms worse. People with mental illness require an individualized treatment plan that could require medications, therapy and participation in peer support groups.
Besides, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administrationfound in a 2013 reportthat 6 million adults reported having a serious mental illness, like major depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, panic disorder, post traumatic stress disorder orborderline personality disorder. By the way, the definition ofparity is murky at best. From lack of access to psychiatrists to expensive costs for medications, the study reveals loads of issuesthatNAMI says show insurance companies are falling short in coverage of mental health and substance abuse disorders, collectively referred to as behavioral health services. There’s a whole array of nuance, she says. You should take it into account. Whenever charging patients outofpocket for care instead, part of the issue is that many psychiatrists do no accept insurance. Let’s say, a plan might list that it covers inpatient psychiatric care but doesn’t specify thekind of facilityin which that care may take place.
NAMI made various other recommendations in its report, from publishing more information about health plans’ specific coverage to establishing easily accessible procedures for filing complaints.
The Mental Health Parity Act,enacted in 2008, requires mental health benefits in some employer sponsored plans be provided on really similar terms of other medical care.
Whenthe Affordable Care Actbecame law in 2010, coverage was expanded to private health plans sold in state and federal marketplaces, whereAmericans canbuy ‘tax subsidized’ plans depending on their income. Mental healthcare is one of 10 required benefits, just like maternity care and vaccines,for allplans sold. While others were barred by loopholes in the law or fell into a coverage gap since their state didn’t expand Medicaid for ‘low income’ people and they could not afford to buy private health support, it found are going to put off medical care or to skip it altogether.