While the pandemic has put everyone’s mental well-being at risk, adolescents have taken it especially hard and have struggled with the social isolation and heightened caution of the “new normal.”
According to the CDC, 44% of high school students reported persistent feelings of hopelessness and sadness, while emergency department visits for attempted suicides increased by 51% for teen girls and 4% for teen boys since 2019. And yet, health insurance companies have faced scrutiny for denying mental health treatment claims at alarming rates. Even before a pandemic surge, a 2014 CBS 60 Minutes Sunday report revealed a claim denial rate of over 90% by Anthem.
John Joseph Conway, a national employee benefits attorney and founder of J.J. Conway Law, considers these findings incredibly troubling, but unsurprising. He works with families to help obtain coverage or reimbursement from plan sponsors for teens seeking extended mental health treatments for conditions like eating disorders, self-harm and substance abuse.
“Most insurance plans do provide mental health benefits and are supposed to be provided on a pretty broad scale under law,” says Conway. “Where the problem arises is when insurers' interpretation of their contracts become overly restrictive.”
However, restrictive interpretation of mental health coverage is technically against federal law — namely, the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008, which required that access to mental health and substance use...
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