No-cost preventive health services
All individual and group health plans are required by the federal Affordable Care Act to cover preventive services without charging you a copay or coinsurance. This is true even if you haven’t met your deductible.
Sharon Daniel
Types of insurance mental health parity covers and who enforces it
|
Plan type |
Who enforces parity? |
|---|---|
|
Individual/family plan |
Washington state Office of the Insurance Commissioner |
How to get help with behavioral health
Emergency help for mental health or substance use disorders
988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline
Call, text or chat 988 to contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. It’s private, free and available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You can also call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255).
Contact the 988 Lifeline if you’re having:
Appealing a behavioral health treatment or service denial
Appeal the denial
For help with writing an appeal, see our example for a mental health and substance abuse appeal letter.
Your coverage rights for behavioral health issues
Your health plan must cover the following services for mental health and substance abuse disorders:
What qualifies as long-term care insurance
What long-term care covers
If you get these services somewhere other than a hospital's acute care unit, LTC insurance usually covers them:
- Diagnostic
- Preventive
- Therapeutic
- Rehabilitative
- Maintenance
- Personal care
LTC insurance usually pays benefits when you can't do two or more of the following things on your own. These are called activities of daily living (ADLs):
Long-term care insurance rate increases
Why insurance premiums have gone up so much in recent years
Long-term care insurance is fairly new and early policies were underpriced. Most insurers didn't expect to pay so much for claims, and have many people cancel their coverage.
Insurers have to change premiums to make sure they have enough money to pay for each plan's claims. If they don't raise rates, they may have trouble paying claims.
If you're thinking about buying insurance, ask about the insurer's past premium increases for all long-term care plans, not just the one you're considering.
Washington state Long-Term Care Partnership Program
If you want to qualify for Medicaid, it helps you avoid spending money or transferring things you own. It's available when you need help with at least two of the following daily activities:
Penn Treaty liquidation
On March 1, 2017, the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court approved petitions to liquidate Penn Treaty Network America Insurance Company and its subsidiary American Network Insurance Company due to financial difficulties that could not be resolved through rehabilitation.
The two companies provide coverage to 76,000 policyholders nationwide. More than 98% of the policies are for long-term care insurance. In Washington state, the two companies provide coverage to 2,800 people for long-term care insurance.