United Healthcare is ruining my mental health

UHC has consistently had on their customer portal recommendations for “in-network” and “$0 cost” mental health providers like Pathway and Brightside. After using Brightside for two months roughly with no problems, I woke up this morning to an email that UNited Healthcare did not approve my insurance for Brightside and I now will have to pay $395 a month to continue with my mental health care. In addition, I now owe Brightside roughly $800 for the previous two months of treatment. ]

I spent over an hour on the phone being dicked around and transferred from customer service rep to customer service rep at UHC and not a single one was able to provide me with clarity on what mental health services are covered in my plan, why my brightside claims were denied, etc. I was told “just because something on UHC portal says in-network and $0 cost does not mean it is actually free. Those are estimates” Sure, I would understand that if I had a $10 co-pay or even a $25 co-pay… But $395? Wild.

The worst of this is that it is really ruining my mental health even more so than why I originally sought treatment. I am now stuck in the middle of a new prescription with no one to contact for refills or for help if there are side effects. I feel scammed. Not only from the inevitable $800 I will need to pay by EOM, but also by the $150ish per paycheck I am paying into United every month.

Last thing, one of my depression triggers are things exactly like this, big corporations screwing over regular humans (or the environment, or animals) and the fact that there are no real repercussions for corporations fucking over people. This was marketing manipulation on their own website and I clearly fell for it.