Many insurance plans offer mental health and addiction disorder benefits. In New York State, most insurance plans must follow laws that protect your right to access these behavioral health services and have them covered.
If your insurance plan is covered by those laws, then any behavioral health services they offer should be covered the same way as medical services. This is called behavioral health parity.
When insurance companies break the law, they make it harder for you to find, get and afford care for mental health and addiction disorders. If your insurance plan offers behavioral health benefits, it should not be more difficult to get your plan to cover behavioral health care than physical health care.
Most insurance plans in New York are required to cover treatment for mental health and substance use disorders. Plans that offer such coverage must cover treatment for behavioral health conditions equally — with similar copays, deductibles, and benefits — to treatment for physical health conditions.
This means the coverage for mental health and addiction disorders must be similar to what is offered for physical health conditions.
Some of the benefits that must be similar are:
In many cases, if your insurance plan denies you coverage of a mental health or addiction treatment or service, you can appeal the decision with your health plan or through an independent third party.
For free and confidential help getting mental health or addiction services, contact the Community Health Access to Addiction and Mental Healthcare Project (CHAMP), which is the New York State independent health insurance ombudsman program.
CHAMP can help you:
Contact CHAMP at 888-614-5400 or ombuds@oasas.ny.gov.
Additionally, some service providers, care managers, case managers and peer specialists also provide support and help you find resources.
The Health Department offers free virtual trainings to help anyone with health insurance learn more about access to behavioral health services. It will give you information on how behavioral health parity applies to your health insurance plan and your access to services. You will learn more about the law, how to identify violations and where to seek help if your rights are being denied.
The training, called "Behavioral Health Parity 101," takes 60 to 90 minutes. Continuing education credits are available to satisfy LCSW and LMSW continuing education requirements, CASAC renewal and CPP/CPS credentialing requirements. For more information, email BHParity@health.nyc.gov. See below to register for upcoming dates:
The Health Department offers a free virtual training for people who provide services in health, behavioral health or social services. This includes mental health and substance use providers, primary care providers, hospital staff, social workers and child protective specialists, behavioral health peer specialists, community health workers and care managers.
The training, called "Behavioral Health Parity 101 for Service Providers," takes 60 to 90 minutes. For more information, email BHParity@health.nyc.gov. See below to register for upcoming dates:
For guidance on complying with laws related to commercial reimbursement and billing for OMH-licensed ambulatory programs, visit Commercial Billing for Behavioral Health Services
To file a complaint regarding behavioral health services billed under commercial insurance, go to https://www.dfs.ny.gov/complaint.
For questions regarding commercial billing for OMH-licensed School-Based Mental Health Clinic services, contact commercial-billing@omh.ny.gov.