Do all UHC plans use Optum for behavioral/mental health?
I’m in a weird insurance situation where I have my primary coverage (it is my own) as Premera Blue Cross, but my behavioral health claims are managed by Optum. I also have a secondary Aetna insurance through my parent, and mental health is not managed via third party like my primary is.
I see a psychiatrist and they are in-network with United (their website just says United), and I believe that UHC and Optum are essentially the same company, so I’m confused as to if my own personal insurance would be considered in-network since behavioral/mental health is managed by Optum for my plan, even though my psychiatrist’s website only says United.
I emailed their office and they told me that UHC and Optum are one in the same, and that they ran my Optum coverage and I was fully covered, but I had called Optum earlier for a related matter and they mentioned that one of my claims had been processed and was out-of-network for those psychiatry visits.
My psychiatry visits are telehealth and they use Headway to do their billing, and when I checked my insurance info on Headway I noticed that my member ID and everything was correct but it was being labeled as United Healthcare, as there wasn’t a dropdown option for Optum.
TLDR: I’m very confused as to if my visits are covered or not because I’m getting conflicting information, so I’m hoping someone else has been through a similar situation with mental health benefits being managed via Optum as a third party and might be able to provide some more details.