White Paper from ProPublica: “Why I Left the Network”
August 2024
ProPublica is one of the most respected investigative journalism groups in the country. For the past year they have been looking at various ways in which insurers do not provide mental health services and/or payment, either before or after they are needed/provided. I spoke with them for about two hours on the problems LCSWs and others have been struggling with in regard to insurance coverage and payment over the past six months. They have published an excellent white paper on this topic, documenting much of what LCSWs and other clinicians in private practice have known for decades.
The continued lack of payment, harassment by reviewers, clawbacks, inadequate networks, refusal to explain denials of care, rejection of payment because claims are deemed faulty without specific requests for more information, and refusal to abide by federal and state laws about mental health parity are discussed in detail. The result has been continued decisions by clinicians to leave insurance networks.
No one wants to see patients go without care, end treatment prematurely, or have income slashed so much that we cannot make a living. It is articles like “Why I Left the Network” that may finally bring the scope of the problem to legislators and the public so that something can be done about the abysmal ways that LCSWs are treated unfairly by many insurers.
To read the complete white paper, go to https://projects.propublica.org/why-i-left-the-network/. To see a summary put together by NPR, please visit https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2024/08/24/nx-s1-5028551/insurance-therapy-therapist-mental-health-coverage. CSWA will offer some suggestions shortly about how to inform legislators about the scope of these problems.
Laura Groshong, LICSW, CSWA Director of Policy and Practice lwgroshong@clinicalsocialworkassociation.org
Please view our Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy, Terms of Use and Refund/Cancellation Policy.
PO Box 105Granville, Ohio 43023
