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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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.
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.