Reuters (11/8, Carroll) reported, “Many insured Americans go out of network for mental health services…despite the higher costs to them and despite a federal law mandating that policies’ mental health coverage be at least as good as their physical health coverage,” research indicated. After “focusing on data from 2012-2017” and identifying “3.2 million adults with mental health conditions, 294,550 with alcohol use disorders, 321,535 with drug use disorders, 178,701 with heart failure and nearly 1.4 million with diabetes with coverage under employer-sponsored insurance plans,” investigators found that “Americans with health insurance were spending more out of pocket on mental health services, such as treatment for substance abuse, than on conditions like diabetes and heart failure,” mostly because “many were getting mental health care out of network.” The findings were published online Nov. 6 in JAMA Network Open.
Related Links:
— “Americans spending more out-of-pocket on mental health than physical health, “Linda Carroll, Reuters, November 8, 2019