Mental Health

Benefits for the treatment of mental conditions and substance abuse are paid in the same manner as your regular medical benefits. However, all care for the treatment of mental conditions and substance abuse must be through a Preferred provider and have Prior Approval from your local Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plan. For further assistance, call the Mental Health/Substance Abuse phone number on the back of your ID card, prior to starting treatment. For further information regarding these benefits, please refer to the 2010 Service Benefit Plan Brochure (RI 71-005)

Benefit Description You Pay

All diagnostic and treatment services for which prior approval is optained.

Note: Preferred benefits are payable only when we determine that the care is clinically appropriate to treat your condition and only when you receive the care from a Preferred provider.

Your cost-sharing responsibilities are no greater than for other illnesses or conditions.

Professional services, including individual or group therapy by providers such as psychiatrists, psychologists, clinical social workers or psychiatric nurses

  • Office and home visits
  • In a hospital outpatient department (except for emergency rooms)
  • Psychotherapy for smoking cessation

Note: Additional types of licensed providers may be available to you for mental health and substance abuse services. Consult your PPO directory or contact your Local Plan at the Mental Health/Substance Abuse phone number on the back of your ID card.

Preferred primary care provider or other healthcare professional: $25 copayment per visit

Preferred specialist: $35 copayment per visit

Note: You pay a $75 copayment for outpatient services billed for by a facility.

Note: You pay 30% of the Plan allowance for drugs and supplies.

  • Pharmacotherapy (medication management)
  • Psychological testing

Preferred primary care provider or other health care professional: $25 copayment per visit

Preferred specialist: $35 copayment per visit

Note: You pay 30% of the Plan allowance for drugs and supplies.

  • Inpatient professional visits
  • Professional charges for facility-based intensive outpatient treatment

Nothing

  • Professional charges for intensive outpatient treatment in a provider's office or other professional setting

Preferred: $30 copayment per visit

  • Professional charges for outpatient diagnostic tests

Nothing

Inpatient services provided and billed by a hospital or other covered facility

  • Room and board, such as semiprivate or intensive accommodations, general nursing care, meals and special diets and other hospital services
  • Diagnostic tests

Note: You must get precertification of inpatient hospital stays; failure to do so will result in a $500 penalty.

$150 per day copayment up to $750 per admission

Outpatient services provided and billed by a hospital or other covered facility

  • Diagnostic tests
  • Services in the following approved treatment programs:
    • partial hospitalization
    • facility-based intensive outpatient treatment

$75 copayment per day per facility

Note: For outpatient diagnostic or psychological tests billed for by a Preferred, Member, or Non-member facility, you pay nothing.

Note: You pay 30% of the Plan allowance for drugs.

Not covered:

  • Services we have not approved
  • Educational or training services
  • Psychoanalysis or psychotherapy credited toward earning a degree or furtherance of education or training regardless of diagnosis or symptoms that may be present
  • Services performed or billed by residential therapeutic camps (e.g., wilderness camps, Outward Bound, etc.)
  • Light boxes

All charges

Authorization procedures

To be eligible to receive mental health and substance abuse benefits, you must call us for prior approval at the Mental Health and Substance Abuse phone number on the back of your ID card before you receive care. We will then provide you with the names and phone numbers of several Preferred providers to choose from and tell you how many visits we are initially approving.

Precertification

You must get precertification of inpatient hospital stays; failure to do so will result in a $500 penalty.

Prior Approval

Prior to starting treatment, you, someone acting on your behalf, your physician, or your hospital must call us at the Mental Health and Substance Abuse phone number on the back of your ID card. We will not pay benefits for mental health and substance abuse services under Basic Option, even at Preferred facilities, until you obtain prior approval.

Treatment Plans

We will work directly with your provider and may request a treatment plan from your provider.

OPM will base its review of disputes about treatment plans on the treatment plan's clinical appropriateness. OPM will generally not order us to pay or provide one clinically appropriate treatment plan in favor of another.