They studied, honed their skills and opened practices, joining health insurance networks that put them within reach of people who couldn’t afford to pay for sessions out of pocket.
So did more than 500 other psychologists, psychiatrists and therapists who shared their experiences with ProPublica.
But one after another, they confronted a system set up to squeeze them out.
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Although federal law requires insurers to provide the same access to mental and physical health care, these companies have been caught, time and again, shortchanging customers with mental illness ...
“The way to look at mental health care from an insurance perspective is: I don’t want to attract those people. I am never going to make money on them,” said Ron Howrigon. “One way to get rid of those people or not get them is to not have a great network.”
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My partner Dr Song has been experiencing this with different insurance companies since she opened her private practice last year ...
She's working two jobs and trying to justify the hours she spends with clients for low insurance payouts or just denial of services for some. It's a racket. She wants to help people ... that's why she spent hundreds of thousands on getting a PhD ... but insurance companies make it impossible and paying out of pocket for many is impossible ...
For-profit healthcare is inhumane, @thewebrecluse 😥
It’s hard when you have a heart for service & then institutionalized power brokers fight against the difficult work you’re putting yourself forward to do.
Not that it’s the only job undergoing this daunting challenge, but it is pretty Sysiphean to live with as part of what you love to do.
Mental health work should be creative, freeing and empowering for counselor and client.
@ATXJane ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ 1000%
@thewebrecluse insurance companies ignore the concept of “Whole Health”. The brain is much more connected to the physical body than was believed in the medical community even 20 years ago. Insurance needs to be investigated and brought up to modern medicine and held accountable for shortcuts paying valid bills by using old views.
@SatuUnelmia ❤️ Oh believe me I know. I've been ranting about this for decades. (And to be honest most psychiatry doesn't look at whole health either). The entire point of health care as an industry is to make and keep people sick ... not to cure, not to help ... Money is the only thing that matters. Lives are irrelevant.
@thewebrecluse The VA now has programs under Whole Health. It’s not perfect but it’s better than what was offered even 5 years ago. Keep screaming because there are too many medical studies out there now that has linked everything without doubt and continue to grow. Look at ozempic. Diabetes? Liver? Lower blood pressure? Weight Loss? Sex drive? Menopause? Inflammation of the joints? Depression? Addiction? It is a GP-1 hormone produced in the brain and is linked to all of those issues.
@thewebrecluse pain physically in the body feeds depression and negative mental health and Depression and negative emotions feed physical pain. That’s a fact. Instead of breaking the cycle it’s cheaper to deny coverage and let them die.
My dad was a PA who specialized in chronic pain management. Over the decades, he saw the length of treatment insurance would pay for cut, over and over. The types of therapy more and more restricted.
And mental health care has never gotten the same level of coverage as any kind of physical care.
It is often the insurers, not the therapists, that determine who can get treatment, what kind they can get and for how long. More than a dozen therapists said insurers urged them to reduce care when their patients were on the brink of harm, including suicide.
Therapists have tried to stick it out.
They have forgone denied payments.
They have taken second jobs.