Today, most medical experts recognize that your mental health is just as vital to your overall wellness as your physical health is. Unfortunately, until Congress passed the Affordable Care Act and the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, insurers didn’t quite agree. Until these critical laws came into being, most insurance companies provided better coverage for treatments impacting physical wellness, while mental health often fell by the wayside. Today, however, the law requires your insurance to cover at least some part of your mental health treatment. This treatment can be for conditions such as depression, anxiety, or substance use.
If you have questions regarding insurance coverages for Blue Cross Blue Shield, Aetna, and other insurance providers, South Tampa Psychiatry wants to help. Please contact our team at 866.273.5017 or use our convenient contact form to reach out for assistance.
What the Law Says About Using Insurance to Pay for Mental Health Treatment
Under United States federal law, insurance companies must provide the same coverage level or better for mental and behavioral health conditions as they do for medical or surgical treatments. If your insurance company requires a $15 copay when you visit a general health practitioner, they can’t automatically hike up the price for a visit to a mental health professional. This change makes a visit to a psychiatrist more affordable, increasing the likelihood that a person will seek treatment.
In addition, these laws cover treatment limits from a non-financial perspective. Your insurance company usually cannot limit how many times you see the mental health provider if the provider deems these visits medically necessary.
However, there are certain flaws to these laws. The mental health treatment provider must be in-network in order for the insurance provider to pay for the treatment. If the provider is not within your network, you may need to travel to get the treatment you need. Additionally, some insurance providers have severe limitations on what issues qualify for insurance coverage, such as:
- Treating severe mental health symptoms and addressing the crisis without treating underlying conditions
- Addressing dual diagnosis disorders
- Only offering coverage for less intensive care levels, even if it means that the treatment may be less potent
- Applying the same standards for children and teens as they do for adults
Clearly, there’s still work to do. However, these laws are significantly better than they have been in years past. If you have questions about whether your insurance will cover treatment, we encourage you to call South Tampa Psychiatry at 866.273.5017 to talk to our admissions team.
How Do I Know If I Can Use My Insurance?
At South Tampa Psychiatry, we want to ensure that you’re able to get all the mental health treatment you need for your condition. However, we also want to mitigate the out-of-pocket costs so you can get all the benefits possible with your insurance coverage. Therefore, we encourage you to begin the insurance verification process to determine what your insurance will cover. We work with many national treatment providers, including:
- Cigna
- Humana
- Blue Cross Blue Shield
- Aetna
For more information about the insurance providers we work with, please reach out to South Tampa Psychiatry today.
Get Mental Health Treatment at South Tampa Psychiatry
Mental health issues have come into the spotlight in recent years. Millions of adolescents, teens, and young adults are suffering from a wide array of conditions. Fortunately, there is treatment available. At South Tampa Psychiatry, we offer a range of treatment options, including:
Don’t let your mental health condition or addiction hold you back any longer. Please contact South Tampa Psychiatry today at 866.273.5017, or contact us online to learn more about our services or to inquire about insurance coverage.
