If you need a therapist and you’re covered by a plan on an Affordable Care Act marketplace, you may have a tough time finding one — because there just aren’t many there. The average provider network offers insureds access to just 11 percent of all the mental health care providers in a given market, according to Kaiser Health News, reporting on a recent Health Affairs study. The study examined 2016 data for 531 provider networks offered by 281 insurance carriers in the marketplaces in every state as well as the District of Columbia using data from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
The study also finds that an average marketplace plan’s network includes just under a quarter of all psychiatrists and 10 percent of all nonphysician mental health care providers. Nonphysician mental health care providers, it adds, include psychologists, nurse practitioners and physician assistants, and behavioral specialists, counselors and therapists with master’s or doctoral degrees.
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