Seriously having a problem accessing mental health services.

I have spent the last week trying to figure out my health insurance as it relates to mental health coverage. I’m still on my (estranged) parent’s plan, which is through a union. The health insurance is through one of the big names, but the union has piecemealed out all of the other services — seriously, even podiatry is covered by a totally unaffiliated coverage. I knew vision and dental were separate, but never knew mental health was, too. So I used the provider search for my main health insurance to locate a psychiatrist, who gave me a diagnosis and recommended I start taking meds and see a therapist. Went back to the search and found one who seemed like a great fit. Perfect.

Last week I get an EOB saying the service was not approved, and I was on the hook for $500. When I called, *that* is when I found out I had a separate mental health plan. Got the name of the company, called them, got a link to their provider search and started looking again. I found very few therapists who seemed like a good fit, so I called them to confirm they took my insurance. Literally no one in any of the billing departments had ever even *heard* of this insurance company, let alone accepted them.

I called the company back and their response was to literally just search in every city around me and call until I found someone because “providers leave the network all the time and never alert us”. I called the union thinking this was a joke, but I was just re-directed back to the insurance company. I finally gave up and started calling all the offices on the list. Out of the 15 offices I was able to call before the end of business: 10 had never heard of them, two are closed or moved, one has limited providers who accept it and they’re not accepting new clients, one said they hadn’t accepted it in “at least” three years, and the last one accepted it, but was only a psychologist and doesn’t offer therapy. (I should also add, when I went to make an appointment with that last office, they couldn’t even locate the plan).