Health News
- New Outpatient Psychiatric Clinic In Louisville Will Accepts Most Insurance, Including Some Medicaid, Which Is Not The Norm
A new mental health clinic is opening in Louisville that will accept most forms of health insurance, including some Medicaid patients, which most smaller, outpatient psychiatric providers don't accept, Joe Sonka reports for Insider Louisville. Ren...
- Veteran Journalist Offers Advice On Covering Mental Health Issues: Be Careful, Creative, And Balanced, Not Discriminatory
The term 'mental health' has been tossed around a lot lately in stories about Kentucky's mental health funding and mental health coverage through Medicaid expansion. It's important to use precise language when writing about the topic,...
- Essential-benefits Rule Expands Mental-health And Substance-abuse Coverage; Ky. Needs More Facilities To Treat Newly Eligible
The Department of Health and Human Services has defined the 10 "essential health benefits" insurance plans must provide, and it included benefits for mental health and treatment of substance-abuse disorders.. Nearly 20 percent of Americans don't...
- Anthem Ppo Plan Chosen As 'benchmark' For State's Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange
The Kentucky Department of Insurance has recommended that the Anthem Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) plan serve as the ?benchmark? plan for the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange, as well as for plans offered outside the exchange. The statement issued...
- Clearing Up The Facts
There has been a lot of confusion about some recent notices to consumers from insurance companies that sell coverage in the individual insurance market, and I?d like to clear up the facts. Today, more than 3 out of every 4 Americans get insurance from...
Health News
Obamacare requires mental-health coverage to be at parity with other coverage, but 1/4 of plans don't do that, study concludes
Federal health reform "has improved access to mental health care for thousands of Kentuckians, but coverage for that care remains unequal to what people get for physical illnesses despite a federal law requiring parity and a promise that health reform would level the playing field," report Laura Ungar and Jayne O'Donnell of USA Today.
"If you need to see a cardiologist, the insurance company doesn't say you're not allowed to see the cardiologist more than a certain number of times. With behavioral health, you commonly see a limit on the visits you get," Tony Zipple, CEO of Seven Counties Services, the Louisville region's largest mental-health care provider, told Ungar, who also works for The Courier-Journal. "Behavioral health nationally is treated like a smaller part of health care."
Ungar and O'Donnell cite a study by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health that found consumer information on one-fourth of plans offered under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act appeared to violate a federal law "designed to stop discrimination in coverage for people with mental-health or addiction problems," they write. "This makes it nearly impossible for consumers to find the best plan to cover their mental health needs, the research suggests."
Researchers found that different co-pays or deductibles for mental and physical health services, and more stringent requirements for authorizations from insurers before patients can get mental health services, may discourage people from buying such plans, said Colleen Barry, lead author of the study report, published in the journal Psychiatric Services. "She's concerned insurers have an incentive to do that because covering people who use mental health services tends to be more expensive," the story reports.
Clare Krusing, a spokeswoman for the lobby America's Health Insurance Plans, "said the rules contained some important changes affecting plan design that were only required for insurance plan years that started on or after July 1, 2014," the story reports. "Krusing added that it's unfair to say a plan doesn't offer mental health parity based only on what consumers see before buying the plans," and not the history of claims made under the plans.
"If you need to see a cardiologist, the insurance company doesn't say you're not allowed to see the cardiologist more than a certain number of times. With behavioral health, you commonly see a limit on the visits you get," Tony Zipple, CEO of Seven Counties Services, the Louisville region's largest mental-health care provider, told Ungar, who also works for The Courier-Journal. "Behavioral health nationally is treated like a smaller part of health care."
Ungar and O'Donnell cite a study by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health that found consumer information on one-fourth of plans offered under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act appeared to violate a federal law "designed to stop discrimination in coverage for people with mental-health or addiction problems," they write. "This makes it nearly impossible for consumers to find the best plan to cover their mental health needs, the research suggests."
Researchers found that different co-pays or deductibles for mental and physical health services, and more stringent requirements for authorizations from insurers before patients can get mental health services, may discourage people from buying such plans, said Colleen Barry, lead author of the study report, published in the journal Psychiatric Services. "She's concerned insurers have an incentive to do that because covering people who use mental health services tends to be more expensive," the story reports.
Clare Krusing, a spokeswoman for the lobby America's Health Insurance Plans, "said the rules contained some important changes affecting plan design that were only required for insurance plan years that started on or after July 1, 2014," the story reports. "Krusing added that it's unfair to say a plan doesn't offer mental health parity based only on what consumers see before buying the plans," and not the history of claims made under the plans.
- New Outpatient Psychiatric Clinic In Louisville Will Accepts Most Insurance, Including Some Medicaid, Which Is Not The Norm
A new mental health clinic is opening in Louisville that will accept most forms of health insurance, including some Medicaid patients, which most smaller, outpatient psychiatric providers don't accept, Joe Sonka reports for Insider Louisville. Ren...
- Veteran Journalist Offers Advice On Covering Mental Health Issues: Be Careful, Creative, And Balanced, Not Discriminatory
The term 'mental health' has been tossed around a lot lately in stories about Kentucky's mental health funding and mental health coverage through Medicaid expansion. It's important to use precise language when writing about the topic,...
- Essential-benefits Rule Expands Mental-health And Substance-abuse Coverage; Ky. Needs More Facilities To Treat Newly Eligible
The Department of Health and Human Services has defined the 10 "essential health benefits" insurance plans must provide, and it included benefits for mental health and treatment of substance-abuse disorders.. Nearly 20 percent of Americans don't...
- Anthem Ppo Plan Chosen As 'benchmark' For State's Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange
The Kentucky Department of Insurance has recommended that the Anthem Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) plan serve as the ?benchmark? plan for the Kentucky Health Benefit Exchange, as well as for plans offered outside the exchange. The statement issued...
- Clearing Up The Facts
There has been a lot of confusion about some recent notices to consumers from insurance companies that sell coverage in the individual insurance market, and I?d like to clear up the facts. Today, more than 3 out of every 4 Americans get insurance from...