Posted by BigDog on January 24, 2001, at 9:52:47
Hi folks!
This is my first post here, but I've done some lurking here in the past. My wife is bipolar 2 and we have been struggling with our insurance company over the past couple of years. We just found out about the Mental Health Parity Act of 1996 (which removes annual and lifetime maximum limits for mental health coverage), and we discovered many states have enacted even more favorable laws for people suffering from serious mental illnesses. For example, group policies issued in Georgia must have 1) the same annual and lifetime maximums as for physical illnesses, 2) no limits on inpatient or outpatient visits, and 3) provide the same dollar limits, deductibles, and coinsurance factors as they do for physical illnesses. However, in our case, the insurance company conveniently forgot to comply with state and federal law until we brought it to their attention. I've included a link below to a site that lists each state's mental health parity laws. I would encourage everyone to check out this site and make sure your insurance is in compliance.http://www.nami.org/campaign/statepar.htm
Good luck!
--BigDog
poster:BigDog
thread:4155
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20010105/msgs/4155.html