Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > The Troubled Teen Industry

Media, Lawsuits and Insurance

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Deborah:
I was going through some old posts and found this nugget of wisdom regarding the media, lawsuits, and insurance companies. Thought it might be appropriate given some of the dialogue of late.

********************************
this is tommyfromhyde
Face, remember, when she or anybody else
wins [he's refering to a mom who enrolled her teen then removed him and filed a lawsuit]
we want the insurance industry to get
the message that when they cover these
programs that they expose themselves to huge
judgements. That'll shut'em down faster than
anything else.
---------------
         
this is tommyfromhyde again
In other words, the press coverage that
counts is in the buissness press and especially
the insurance industry press.
Peace,
Tommy
***************************************

I think this is an area we activist could really work. Without insurance coverage many programs would fold. Can't stop the second mortgages or the use of college funds, but we could draw attention to insurance.

It's fraud when a facility registers with their state as a boarding school, yet advertises to the public as a Therapeutic Facility and receives government funds for special education or insurance companies for mental disorders. They shouldn't have it both ways. Either they're a traditional boarding school or a psuedo psych facility with an academic component.

I know this was the case with the TBS I'm familiar with, and I'm sure (know) there are others.

How do we draw attention to this?
If you know of a program that is running this scam, do the preliminary research and pass it off to a worthy journalist.

If you are privy to which insurance companies are being defrauded, write them a letter. Provide solid evidence. If you happen to be a customer, let them know you don't want your premiums to increase due to this fraud. We all pay when insurance is abused.

And the programs need to have their feet put to the fire, one or the other. Can't have your cake and eat it too.

Every little bit helps.
Deborah

Janet:
Deborah, I processed medical insurance and worked for a large insurance company for 12  years off and on.  Insurance companies are very restrictive on what constitutes a psychiatric hospital, the only place they will pay for psychological care.  Policies that have coverage for substance abuse also have restrictive definitions on what constitutes a rehab facility.  They have some way of investigating a facility/hospital and keep a list of approved facilities in all claims paying offices.

Therefore, if anyone has had their medical insurance covering  a WWASP facility or other BM facilities, that person should call the insurance company and find out what kind of investigation was done to get approval for the facility.  If the answer is unsatisfactory or confusing, they should ask the claims paying office to request an investigator look into the facility and its licenses.

You are correct, everyone pays for fraudelent claims.  Actually, whatever the employer pays for the insurance premium is really part of the employee's salary.

FaceKhan:
Even if WWASP was considered a legitimate psychiatric hospital, very few insurance plans cover indefinite stays. Most only pay for the first week up to three months, thats why the appeal of sending misbehaving teens to private mental wards went away after the late 70's and early 80's because insurance stopped paying the 300-800 dollar a day charges.

Anonymous:
Let's not forget that every school needs liability
insurance. How can we make the liability carriers
very paranoid about the "kid-fixing, attitude-adjusting"
sort of boarding school?
The insurance buissness is looking for any
excuse to cancel policies just now.

MelissaR:
Yah, I don't think that is the best angle to take. Most of the parents who attempt to gain coverage of WWASP facilities under their medical insurance realize what THEY are doing is fraudulent because WWASP does not present itself as a psychiatric hospital. I doubt there are many people openly willing to audit themselves and lose money for the sake of this cause. WWASP does claim that "some parents have been able to do it," though. I'm assuming these parents are savvy business people and assumed the risk with insurance fraud..... but that's a dangerous track to cross, I think.

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