Quote:
Originally Posted by Natalya
I had no idea there are parity laws! My insurance (a OK-ish insurance that a small company in the US can buy for its employees) offers outstanding benefits for preventive care - I did not pay a penny for digital mammography, an expensive procedure, and immunizations are free - and pays OK for non-preventive medical care in "non-mental" fields. Mental health? First, the disease has to be considered "serious" to be covered; luckily, BP is (I do not know their criteria, probably they believe that Axis I is serious although I hear that there is advocacy to put borderline on the map). If it is an in-network provider, very good coverage but there are virtually no providers who would take this plan because it pays measly amounts to THEM. I have found one such provider from a long list, no one else was interested. But OK, coverage is great, but there are 20 (standard in the US) visits per year, and that includes COMBINED pdoc, tdoc, and hospitalization. I need to see pdoc frequently, sometimes weekly, so I end up paying the tdoc (who is non in-network anyway) out-of-pocket because I save my days for the more expensive pdoc. If the local research hospital's special BP clinic decides to accept me, I will have virtually no coverage because they are out-of-network, and very expensive at that. This is all a standard California policy, so where is parity? In states like Massachussets? And you are right, we should be like Epilepsy, many of us even take anticonvulsant drugs, so what is the difference?
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Parity laws vary by state, unfortunately. Having limits on the number of visits is very frustrating and I've also had to play the 'pay out of pocket' game before. I also saw my pdoc for therapy twice a month for a while, combining the pdoc/tdoc functions. Your 20 visits includes hospital stays?? Now that's going too far. You could use up 2/3 of your visits with one inpatient stay! Luckily, these laws are supposed to improve in 2014 when "Obamacare" goes into full effect and everyone will have to give mental health diagnoses full parity. Here's a link to a list of each state's parity status:
http://www.ncsl.org/default.aspx?tabid=14352
Unfortunately, California isn't quite there yet, so it sounds like you've got the best coverage that's available there so far.