Over the years, licensed therapist Sarah Soroken has heard from her patients again and again about what a miserable experience it can be to find a mental health provider who actually takes their insurance. But one patient stands out.
Soroken said she was working at Kaiser’s Vallejo Medical Center in 2022 when a college-aged woman was admitted to the hospital’s emergency room after she attempted suicide.
The patient, Soroken said, gave up and tried to take her own life after she called a list of 50 mental-health providers who were listed as taking Kaiser’s insurance plan, but none would see her, or they didn’t actually take her insurance.
“This patient now has the traumas of a suicide attempt and having been harmed by our health care system to add to their treatment needs,” Soroken told the Senate Health Committee earlier this month.
Soroken, who no longer works for Kaiser, testified in support of Assemblymember Chris Holden’s Assembly Bill 236. The legislation from the Pasadena Democrat would give state regulators authority to fine insurers if their lists of in-network doctors, hospitals, mental health workers, labs and imaging centers aren’t up-to-date and accurate.
What the bill aims to do
The bill tackling what are disparagingly called “ghost networks” has so far passed the Assembly and the Senate Health Committees with only Republicans in opposition, and despite the lobbying powerhouses representing California doctors and insurers fighting the bill every step of the way. Doctors and insurers blame each other for problems in the directories, but they argue the bill is unnecessary, burdensome on them and that laws on…
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