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Friday, October 11, 2013

Lacking Rules, Insurers Balk at Paying for Intensive Psychiatric Care

By REED ABELSON
The New York Times
Published: September 27, 2013

Here is an excerpt:

Melissa’s treatment did not come cheap: it ultimately cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, Ms. Morelli said. Patients often find themselves at odds with health insurers, but the battles are perhaps nowhere so heated as with the treatment of serious mental illness.

It was not supposed to be this way. A federal law, the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008, was aimed at avoiding fights like this over coverage by making sure insurers would cover mental illnesses just as they cover treatment for diseases like cancer or multiple sclerosis.

The entire story is here.