A survey on mood disorders that was recently published by the National Alliance on Mental Illness has found that cost is the main obstacle hindering individuals from accessing mental health care. Cost was also found to be the main reason individuals who were able to access care had to discontinue their treatment.
In addition to this, the survey also found that most individuals didn’t even know how to find mental health support. NAMI chief medical officer Ken Duckworth stated that almost 50% of the individuals who participated in the survey weren’t sure whether they were eligible to receive care.
Legal Action Center staff attorney Sika Yeboah-Sampong commented that all these issues were barriers to health care. The Legal Action Center works with a program in the state of New York to expand access to mental health and addiction services.
Kennedy Forum senior policy adviser David Lloyd stated that many individuals living with mental health conditions such as mood disorders were uninsured and unemployed, noting that some conditions made individuals lose their insurance.
Yeboah-Sampong also noted that even individuals with private health insurance or Medicaid found it hard to access therapy or mental health support. She explained that sometimes this was because of un-updated or inaccurate insurer directories for mental healthcare providers, adding that in-network listings for mental health care providers that were accurate weren’t many.
Why are there few therapists in the network?
Yeboah-Sampong explained that historically speaking, the reimbursement rates for mental health care providers were lower in comparison to rates for physical health providers. An analysis conducted in 2019 by risk-management firm Milliman supports this assertion about reimbursement rates.
This, Yeboah-Sampong continued, has led to most psychiatrists and therapies remaining out of the network, which leaves mental health care providers in the network with long wait lists. This often leaves the majority of individuals seeking care and support having to choose between paying for care out of pocket and living without treatment.
Yeboah-Sampang adds that despite the 2008 Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, these obstacles to accessing mental health care produced disparity between insurance coverage of physical and mental health. The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act mandates that insurers cover mental health like they do physical health.
The survey also found that despite these hurdles, more than 70% of individuals who were able to obtain treatment found it helpful. The increase in mental health conditions and symptoms during the pandemic has made it more urgent to improve access to mental health care for everybody.
Many companies such as Cybin Inc. (NEO: CYBN) (NYSE American: CYBN) are working to develop treatments that will take mental health care to levels never seen before. Such novel remedies could come in handy in the wake of the COVID-19 induced spike in mental health disease rates.
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to Cybin Inc. (NEO: CYBN) (NYSE American: CYBN) are available in the company’s newsroom at https://ibn.fm/CYBN
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