Sovereign Health Releases Part 6 of The War on Behavioral Health Care: Insurance Companies' "Bad Faith" Tactics Kill

SAN CLEMENTE, Calif., Oct. 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The unethical tactics health insurance companies use to get rich by denying claims is highlighted in Insurance Companies Kill People with "Bad Faith" Tactics, a new installment of the ground-breaking series The War on Behavioral Health Care. The new segment launched today; it explores discrimination in connection with addiction and mental illness, the stigma perpetuated by the media, profits gained at the price of human suffering and systemic corruption in the insurance industry.

Read Laurie St. Clair's story in this article. Laurie was raising five of her young grandchildren when she passed away at the age of 53. Four months earlier, Laurie's doctor told her she needed a liver transplant. Insurers Health Net and HealthCare LA spent months negotiating a contract to determine who would pay; there was no doctor in network for her transplant. The back-and-forth dragged on for four months. The negotiations dragged on so long that Laurie never got the care she needed, when she needed it. Laurie died. Her life was lost, and money was saved.

Sadly, delaying treatment until death is just one of many "bad faith" practices health insurance companies used to avoid having to pay for expensive treatments, even if they are legally obligated to do so. Insurers are adept at denying, delaying, confusing and refusing—all at the patient's expense.

The amount most people living in the United States pay for health care keeps rising. The median U.S. household income 2016 was $57,617. A 2016 study showed many people paid more than 10 percent of their income on premiums, deductibles and other out-of-pocket payments. People with serious illnesses paid up to 25 percent on health care costs.

Insurance companies count on the fact that many people give up fighting for the services they have paid to receive, which is why they get rich while people die. The only way to win the insurance battle is to hold them accountable for their obligations, and their actions to duck those obligations. Losing the insurance battle means losing the war on behavioral health care. The future of our nation depends on every American understanding what this war means, and standing up for our own lives and the lives of our children before it's too late.

Last week's installment, "The War on Behavioral Health Care Part 5. Not in My Backyard," explored the underlying factors that drive communities' NIMBYism (not in my backyard-ism) to recovery facilities, despite the need for care as the opioid crisis sweeps the country. The article detailed the aggressive and shocking behavior of neighbors who repeatedly launched violent assaults on a recovery home being prepared to receive patients.

About Sovereign Health
Sovereign Health has qualified for the Joint Commission's Gold Seal accreditation and consistently ranks as a top provider of behavioral health services, according to the independent eBASIS report from McLean Hospital, a Harvard Medical School affiliate. In McLean's quarterly reports for 2016, Sovereign has surpassed 50 other treatment centers nationwide in several important health care measures.

Sovereign Health's facilities are licensed in accordance with state regulations. The Joint Commission is the nation's leading health care standards-setting and accrediting organization and sets a very high bar for qualifying for the Gold Seal designation. Sovereign's extensive national network of nine facilities across five states also enjoys the distinction of being accredited to provide concurrent mental health and substance use treatment, a rarity in the field.

Sovereign Health's mission is to provide a broad spectrum of high-quality behavioral health treatment services for adults and adolescents, including support services for family members. One factor that differentiates Sovereign from other treatment providers has been the company's ability to offer separate mental health and addiction or dual diagnosis treatment programs at its facilities. For more information, visit www.sovhealth.com.

SOURCE Sovereign Health

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