Blue Shield pediatric mental healthcare in Los Angeles is a joke.

I'm in a suburb of Los Angeles. One of the largest cities in the entire WORLD. I requested assistance making an appointment with Magellan (who covers their mental health side) for my 7 year old daughter who needs a therapist and a psych assessment to figure out what flavor of neurodivergence we're dealing with. Is it ADHD, anxiety, depression, or autism? OR IS IT ALL OF THEM? I feel like I'm never going to know.

I was connected with a very nice woman who proceeded to make over 100 calls and emails to try and find an in-person provider that was in network within 5 miles (anything over 5 miles is a 30 minute drive with a kid who gets carsick). She couldn't find one within 5 miles. So my request was transferred to their "ad-hoc network" whatever tf that means. It's been 4 weeks, and I haven't heard anything from them, and any calls to try and get an update about the situation or a contact number for whoever is handling it are met with "well I don't see any notes on the account…"

I'M BEYOND THE POINT OF LOSING MY SHIT FROM FRUSTRATION. I'm officially at the point where I'm desperately screaming into the void hoping that anyone knows wtf I can do to find my daughter care.

We do not qualify for medi-cal.
We have an HMO.
Medical group is Optum
In the SGV.

It's not as though there's a shortage of providers. There's plenty of providers, but none of them are in network.

I do not want a psychiatric evaluation done via zoom/phone/etc. If I only wanted a rx, I'm sure there's no shortage of in-network telehealth psychiatrists who would sign off on it.

Primary care put in a referral to Boone Fetter at CHLA, but it could take 6 more months before there's an opening for us.

In the meantime, we're all miserable and she's having meltdowns right and left while I have to keep her little brother away from her so that she doesn't hit him. IT'S ONLY THE THIRD DAY OF SUMMER VACATION.

And no matter what I do, unless we pay thousands of dollars out of pocket and cross our fingers for a small reimbursement, we can't get her the care that she needs.

what can I do? Is there a special secret magical department that I can contact? are we all just doomed to suffer? because without care, this kid is going to hit middle school and realize "wow, drugs are awesome and they make me feel better"

submitted by /u/Odd-Suggestion3815
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