Anthem Insurance Under Investigation
In the state of Ohio, there is an ongoing problem with mental health patients who have Anthem health insurance and are attempting to get help. An investigative team began receiving phone calls from local patients complaining about the health insurance company.
Spurred by the state’s governor Ted Strickland, the team accessed Anthem’s web site to research their lists of in-network health care providers and found that most of them listed (32 out of 50) no longer took Anthem patients or were no longer in the network. Some of the mental health issues patients need addressing most have to do with children’s’ needs, suicide, or marriage/relationship counseling, as in Kate’s case.
Kate, who has a young son named Coen, phoned Anthem’s customer service number looking for help. She found that despite them being listed on Anthem’s web site as being in network, many of the therapists she called flatly denied her service because she had Anthem. Medical office employers explain that carrying Anthem and seeing their patients doesn’t even cover overhead costs because Anthem has cut the amount of money they pay to doctors so drastically.
The investigative team has now done two studies and made two reports, one of which went to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). NAMI’s executive director of the branch in Hamilton County – David Ranz – agrees with the team that Anthem’s advertising of in-network therapists is false and that the issue needs to be exposed.
Hamilton County has since dropped Anthem as one of its health insurance carriers. Governor Strickland and Ohio’s state Department of Insurance are conducting an ongoing monitoring situation of the Anthem issues with behavioral health. The investigative team was unable to get a representative from Anthem to directly comment on the complaints received by the state.
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