MORNING CALL: A recent Capital Blue Cross decision to drop behavioral health coverage from its individual plans will leave thousands of mental patients unable to pay for their therapy, doctor’s visits and medication. The move, effective in January, has forced 3,400 of the insurer’s affected members to scramble during the last days of the year to secure a new provider — facing myriad bureaucratic obstacles.
The outlook seems grim to a population that is already stigmatized, said Janet Bandics, director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness in the Lehigh Valley. For the past two weeks, she has struggled to help mental patients get another form of coverage.
Bandics said Capital Blue Cross did not provide its members with enough assistance or enough time to go through the administrative process of changing health plans. She said many of them are desperate and “don’t know where to start.” … (more)
