DENVER — A bill making its way through the Colorado state legislature this session aims to increase access to mental health care.
The sponsors of HB25-1002 are working to establish a standard definition of "medical necessity" in hopes of putting decisions about mental health treatment back in the hands of doctors and patients and limit an insurance company's option to deny coverage.
Mona Abaza knows that denial too well.
"We have spent over $350,000 out of pocket, and still counting," Abaza said.
She's been working for years to get her daughter, now a freshman in college, mental health care.
Her daughter has scars from self harming. She's been to four different programs over a year and a half and has evaluation notes from psychiatrists who, at the time, didn't feel it was safe for her to stop those programs.
Still, Abaza said insurance denied coverage, claiming their daughter was not a danger to herself.
"I mean, this bill is really important to me, because I'm we as a family are lucky. We we had the resources to take out a second mortgage and multiple other loans so that we could get my daughter the care she needed to thrive again," Abaza said. "I am blessed to say she is, but most families in Colorado are not. So I think it's really important that we view mental health the same way we do physical health and that our insurance companies do as well.
If the bill is passed and a standard definition for "medical necessity" is determined, insurers can still deny care. They will just have to prove what they're being asked to cover is medically unnecessary.
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