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Families Together in NYS supports the call to carve behavioral health out of Medicaid Managed Care. Profit should never come before access to health care — especially in a public program like Medicaid.

Many parents have lived through the agonizing experience of persuading a commercial health plan to cover a child’s behavioral health treatment. The problem became so widespread that New York enacted some of the strongest mental health parity laws in the country. Yet two decades later, insurers still find ways to skirt those requirements. Now the state has handed control of Medicaid behavioral health to an industry that includes bad actors known for delaying and denying care.

From the moment parents realize their child needs help, they act with urgency — only to be met with indifference and a system seemingly designed to restrict access.

It is in parents’ interest to secure care for their children. It is in providers’ interest to deliver that care. But is it in insurers’ financial interest to pay for it? That misalignment, once largely confined to private insurance, is now confronting families who rely on Medicaid. Parents make countless calls searching for in-network providers. Short-staffed programs have months-long waitlists. Instead of providing care, staff spend precious time chasing delayed payments and appealing denied claims.

Healing is........

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