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I’m a big fan of any and all alternatives in health care payments. The ACA is a massive influence here that isn’t being discussed though. The free mental health

I’m a big fan of any and all alternatives in health care payments. The ACA is a massive influence here that isn’t being discussed though. The free mental health services discussed in the comments by Evry seem generous and excessive on their part, until you realize that the mental health parity rule can easily and casually stick them with $50k or more of bills for in-patient treatment, where over-admission frequently happens to the detriment of the patient in some cases [1] and merely the insurer in others [2,3]. Getting ahead of this and trying to divert patients from this wasteful system is a fantastic and profitable idea for the insurer. This seems to be a success of the ACA and what insurance is supposed to be doing. But this is somewhat of a cat and mouse game in the long term because they ultimately can not choose they cover. [1] https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/rosalindadams/intake https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/rosalindadams/intake [2] https://fee.org/articles/how-obamacare-created-massive-addiction-treatment-fraud/ https://fee.org/articles/how-obamacare-created-massive-addic... [3] luxuryrehabs.com

aquaphile 5y ago
> Getting ahead of this and trying to divert patients from this wasteful system is a fantastic and profitable idea for the insurer. We try to provide on-demand care whenever reasonable and possible. While it increases utilization of things like mental health and telehealth and wellness for us in the short-term, over the long-term it yields benefits in the overall health of the member (especially when considered across a whole population). > ACA The ACA brought approximately 40 million net-new insureds into the marketplace who were previously uninsured. It was/is a hugely ambitious law, with (I think) good intentions, that had (to your point) some unintended consequences. Also, many of the initial assumptions going in on the ACA turned out to be far too optimistic.

aquaphile 5y ago

> Getting ahead of this and trying to divert patients from this wasteful system is a fantastic and profitable idea for the insurer. We try to provide on-demand care whenever reasonable and possible. While it increases utilization of things like mental health and telehealth and wellness for us in the short-term, over the long-term it yields benefits in the overall health of the member (especially when considered across a whole population). > ACA The ACA brought approximately 40 million net-new insureds into the marketplace who were previously uninsured. It was/is a hugely ambitious law, with (I think) good intentions, that had (to your point) some unintended consequences. Also, many of the initial assumptions going in on the ACA turned out to be far too optimistic.