 |
Health knowledge made personal
|
|
|
Health knowledge made personal
|
|
Earlier this year, a Robbinsville, New Jersey family won a landmark lawsuit against the Aetna Insurance Company due to the insurer's denial of claims to treat a 16-year-old adolescent girl with anorexia. The insurance company cut off coverage for the daughter of Robbinsville's Jeff Meiskin even though she required months of in-patient care. Aetna said her illness was a "non-biologically based mental illness" and limited her coverage to 20 outpatient visits per calendar year and 30 days of in-patient benefits. Meskin's daughter was not the first to have her claims denied by an insurance company. She was not the tenth, or the hundredth. She was one of perhaps tens of thousands. Limitations on access to care for eating disorders patients have not only historically posed a barrier to the recovery process for countless individuals, the restrictions have arguably put many lives at risk. The long-standing discrimination by insurance companies against patients suffering from psychological and behavioral disorders has led to higher co-payments, deductibles, and stricter limits on treatment for addiction and mental illness, leaving many patients and their families without care, without proper treatment, and in many cases, without hope. That is until now... |
Write a comment:
|
