After Rehab, Will Insurance Cover 90 Days of Outpatient Treatment?

In a perfect world, no one would ever have to worry about paying for addiction treatment. While drug rehab programs do have to charge people for services such as overnight stays, outpatient counseling and family therapy, they do have plans in place to help make health care affordable. For many people entering drug addiction treatment, the first step is to find out what their health insurance covers.

Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, addiction can no longer be treated like a pre-existing condition. Health insurance companies must also allow for the same level of treatment as they do for other medical conditions. This means that you can expect that your insurance will pay at least a portion of your care depending upon the type of plan that you have. The majority of major health insurance companies allow for coverage to include a certain amount of time in inpatient care. Then, your policy will also typically include coverage for outpatient care.

The amount of time that you can get covered for your care will depend upon things such as what your treatment team recommends, your deductible obligations and whether or not you’ve already been in treatment during the coverage period. Although this might seem complicated to figure out, the truth is that you can get help understanding your policy when you are trying to determine if insurance will cover 90 days of outpatient treatment after rehab.

The fact that you are already thinking about long-term treatment shows that you are serious about getting sober. Combining the two types of treatment helps you to move from the security of inpatient care to your new lifestyle while still continuing to receive intensive forms of support. Health insurance companies typically prefer to help you meet your goal for long-term sobriety by allowing for both types of care to be covered. As a general rule, allowing for longer addiction treatment programs benefits health insurance companies by lowering the risk that someone could need more expensive forms of health care in the future due to the negative effects of substance misuse.

Maximize Your Health Care Coverage for Addiction Treatment

Understanding how your insurance policy works is the best way to begin figuring out what is covered. You have several ways to find out more about your policy, and you’ll want to consider each of the following to find what works best for you. •Read the written policy that is issued by your insurance company •Visit your insurance company’s website to use cost estimator calculators •Contact a customer service representative from your health insurance company •Reach out to an addiction treatment program to get counseling regarding your financial options Keep in mind that you may need to use several methods to fully understand what your policy covers. It is common to still have questions after you read your policy, and it may take having someone else explain it to you to identify all of your options for getting your treatment covered.

Typically, a health insurance policy will offer either complete or partial coverage for inpatient and outpatient stays. Your policy may also offer complete coverage for a set number of days followed by partial coverage for any time that you go over for your stay. If your health insurance policy limits inpatient rehab coverage to a small amount of time, then they’ll often provide a higher level of coverage for outpatient care. This often means that you’ll be able to get a longer amount of time covered when you choose to extend your treatment with outpatient services.

The combination of inpatient and outpatient care helps you start out in a very structured environment while you focus on making it through the withdrawal process and learning more about why you misuse drugs or alcohol. Then, you’ll be able to start putting what you learned into practice by returning home. Outpatient care helps you to stay sober by providing you with counseling each day that reinforces those early lessons. You can also use your time in outpatient care to continue the process of healing and finding ways to manage other mental health conditions. Outpatient treatment is the most effective way to prevent relapse, and health insurance companies will often cover the amount of time that you need to feel strong enough to continue your recovery on your own.

Once you’ve completed both courses of treatment, you may also find that there is coverage for other mental health services such as after care programs for relapse prevention and continued counseling for other underlying mental health disorders. Do you prefer longer addiction treatment programs? Give us a call at 833-820-2922 and we’ll help you put together a plan that helps you get the most treatment from your health insurance coverage.