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Old Jul 28, 2013, 11:50 AM
ultramar ultramar is offline
Poohbah
 
Member Since: Mar 2013
Location: USA
Posts: 1,486
I wouldn't worry about stand-alone psych facilities not being covered. Some of the *best* (regular) hospitals in the country have excellent inpatient psych units. Also, outpatient psychiatric practices (where you can see psychiatrists and therapists) out of hospitals, rather than private (I think this is what you're saying your insurance covers) can also be excellent.

As far as planning (considering limitations of the insurance) perhaps you could scout out (with the help of your pdoc at school) a good, large academic medical center, with a good psychiatry department. You could make a plan with your therapist and pdoc at school to be sent to that hospital if you were ever to need inpatient care.

Will you be able to continue seeing your current therapist and pdoc at school?

If not, again I would check out which hospital in that area has the highest ranking psychiatry department, where you could seek outpatient care. I know a 'hospital' environment sounds daunting, but it can be excellent if you go to the right hospital.

It does sound like outpatient (not only emergency) psychiatric care is covered, so you shouldn't have a problem there. I do think that insurance through a university would have to abide by the mental health parity law, but you can make some phone calls and find out more information about all of this. If your insurance offers in and outpatient psych care, then it sounds like it abides by the law. The fact that you can't go to any facility you want is an unfortunate reality of many insurance plans -what's 'in-network' and what's not.

If you're ever in a position where you cannot afford medical insurance (post-school), you could apply for Medicaid. I know Medicaid has a bad rap, but the patients I work with who have it get excellent care --hospital outpatient clinics and inpatient have to accept it by law (because all hospitals receive federal funding of some sort or another). Again, it all depends on how good the hospital is.

I'm going to take a look at the plan you posted a link to.

I think you'll be okay, though! I would recommend calling the insurance company, though, to clear up any questions you have.