Dynamic Accident Lawyers: Bad Faith Insurance Practices In Light of Mental Health Treatment Laws

When a person has to spend time in residential treatment for mental health care, that is, an overnight or longer stay at a mental health treatment facility, it can be nerve wracking in and of itself.

And until recently, insurers might charge more for mental health medical insurance coverage than comparable treatments for physical disorders, which is a potential form of bad faith insurance.

But new mental health parity laws are going into effect. Many of these new changes will help expand medical insurance coverage on residential treatment and provide specific legal requirements to curtail insurance coverage disputes.

What is Mental Health Parity?

At the very core of the concept, mental health parity is the idea that an insurer should process mental health treatments the same way they treat other health related issues. In practice, mental health parity shows up in situations like charging the same copay for a visit to a psychiatrist or therapist as a patient would pay when visiting a regular physician.

The struggle to achieve mental health parity actually predates the current controversies over the Affordable Care Act by years. However, a new series of bad faith insurance lawsuits have begun to hash out these issues, particularly in California.

One area of mental health parity insurance claims that is rapidly changing is with residential treatment or in-patient care for mental health. This includes overnight and longer stays at mental health facilities or addiction centers.

The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Act was enacted in 2008. This federal law said that health insurance companies are legally obligated to cover psychological and psychiatric disease along similar lines as treatment for purely physical diseases. This law said that plans cannot set higher deductibles or co-pay costs for mental health care.

Along similar lines, the law forbids setting any sort of limit on the number of mental healthcare visits that are more restrictive than their coverage for physical health care.

However, these laws did not address some issues, including residential treatment. However, newer mental health parity laws address the issue of residential treatment— generally in favor of the policyholder.

Most medical insurance coverage plans broadly follow the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Act. However, California mental health parity laws and the Affordable Care Act have further strengthened mental health parity.

New guidelines, in effect as of July 1, 2015 will further regulate health insurance to bar insurance plans from bad faith insurance practices such as limiting mental health options by geographical area, and provide more medical insurance coverage for intermediate treatments like in-patient treatment or intensive outpatient treatment for mental health.

Bad Faith Insurance Lawsuits

If a policyholder finds that their medical insurance coverage plan restricts mental health treatment, including residential treatment, one option patients have at their disposal is to file a bad faith insurance lawsuit.

Such a lawsuit could seek to enforce mental health parity laws, and force insurers to cover residential treatment as they would hospitalization for physical problems. Additionally, a bad faith insurance lawsuit could potentially also recoup the extra cost of residential treatment for mental illness.

Join a Free California Bad Faith Insurance Lawsuit Investigation

A bad faith lawsuit investigation has been launched into allegations that some California insurance companies are refusing to pay valid medical claims or offering to pay far less than the claim is worth. Some of the companies being investigated for potential violations include:

Aetna
Anthem Blue Cross
Blue Cross of California
Blue Shield of California
Cigna
Health Net
Kaiser
Secured Horizons
United Healthcare
WellPoint
Others

If you or a loved one were denied coverage for autism treatment, mental health treatment, plastic surgery skin removal after weight loss, proton therapy for cancer, or some other medically necessary treatment, you may have a legal claim.

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