Have insurance? Good luck finding an in-network mental health professional. And be prepared to pay a bundle out-of-pocket. As a psychiatrist, Dr. Andrew Popper wanted to see lower- and middle-income patients who often face the greatest mental health challenges. He also thought taking insurance was part of a well-rounded practice. But years of hassles to get insurance companies to pay routine claims wore him down. For Popper, who practices in the Boston area and volunteers as an instructor at Harvard Medical School, the last straw came in 2022. Suddenly, an elderly patient he’d been seeing for more than a decade was getting her weekly claims turned down. The amount was just $30, but the money mattered to the patient. Popper said he made about a half-dozen calls to the insurance company – often more than 30 minutes each when the prompts and time on hold were factored in. Each time, the company’s representative agreed there’d been a mistake – but the claims were never paid. Better he...
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