The mother of an Arizona man who died after being unable to find mental health treatment is suing his health insurer, saying it broke the law by publishing false information that misled its customers.
Ravi Coutinho, a 36-year-old entrepreneur, bought insurance from Ambetter, the most popular plan on HealthCare.gov, because it seemed to offer plenty of mental health and addiction treatment options near his home in Phoenix. But after struggling for months in early 2023 to find in-network care covered by his plan, he wasn’t able to find a therapist. In May 2023, after 21 calls with the insurer without getting the treatment he sought, he was found dead in his apartment. His death was ruled an accident, likely due to complications from excessive drinking.
Coutinho was the subject of a September 2024 investigation by ProPublica that showed how he was trapped in what’s commonly known as a “ghost network.” Many of the mental health providers that Ambetter listed as accepting its insurance were not actually able to see him. ProPublica’s investigation also revealed how customer service representatives and care managers repeatedly failed to connect Coutinho to the care he needed after he and his mother asked for help. The story was part of a yearlong series, “America’s Mental Barrier,” that investigated the ways insurers employed practices that interfered with their customers’ ability to access mental health care.
Most insurance plans don’t cover mental health beyond trivial interactions for a trivial period of time. Most metal healh professionals don’t accept insurance because they can’t afford to. After a decade between school and “volunteering”, insurance companies offer a wage that could easily be made with far less stress, responsibility, and accountability. Earnings can be “clawed back” by an insurane company at any time.
Most insurance companies don’t provide out of network benefits, because they can make more profit by exploiting customers and labor. Often pitting them against each other to avoid any responsibility.
MHPAEA is a fucking joke. For profit healthcare should be illegal.