Insurance and Addiction
When you or your loved one are trying to find an addiction treatment program, you’re probably wondering, “how am I going to pay for all this?”
Financial payments for addiction are one of the largest obstacles to getting treatment. Even if you’re among the 70% of Americans who have insurance, it can still be difficult to understand what type of treatment your policy will cover. To help you navigate these difficult waters, we’ve included an overview of the standard process below.
First things first, when you contact any treatment program, they’ll conduct an intake assessment. They’ll ask you about your substance use history, basic demographics, etc… During this time, most programs will ask you for your insurance information. Treatment centers will run a verification of benefits (VOB), which typically takes about 24 hours. This tells programs whether or not they can accept your insurance, how much of your deductible has been met, how much out of pocket it will cost you and more key insurance information. Fortunately, after several laws were passed in 2008, many private insurance companies have now started covering drug and alcohol treatment.
Each treatment center is different but all of them take some type of cash payment. If you have some type of insurance, read this next part closely. You need to know whether your insurance policy is an HMO or PPO. If you don’t know this information, you’ll be able to find out after the VOB is completed. The reason this matters is some treatment programs aren’t “in network” with insurance companies. An HMO policy means your insurance will only cover in network providers. Conversely, PPO policies cover both in and out of network providers.
Our Approach
Our process is very similar to the process laid out above. Once you contact our facility, our team will conduct an intake assessment. We discuss your case with our treatment team to decide if we’re a good fit for your needs and we run a VOB. After we receive these results, a member of our team will contact you to debrief on your insurance information. If we feel we aren’t able to meet your needs, we will help you find another provider that might be a good fit. Additionally, we provide partial and full scholarships on a case by case basis. If finances are your primary concern, please let us know and we will try our best to connect you with a suitable resource.
If you or a loved one is interested in finding the right addiction treatment program that best fits your needs, we can help! Contact our team today to learn more.