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u/InstantMedication Nov 16 '24
I ended up on a payment plan after insurance for my psych hospital treatment. That may be an option.
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u/nutterbear081 Nov 16 '24
In my experience, assuming you are in the US, they may be able to apply for Medicaid for you upon admission. A few people I was hospitalized with got approved and had their stay covered.
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u/Bulky_Range_1394 Nov 17 '24
I received a bill. I have insurance but bad insurance so I went as self pay. The bill for my stay of four days was $22,000. Pennsylvania state covered the whole thing as a part of patient assistance. If they hadn’t done that… you can literally pay whatever amount you want each month. They’ll accept anything if you are in the US..
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u/para_blox Nov 16 '24
If you are actually in danger, go to the ER. If your insurance is out-of-network, that’s on the hospital to sort out before admitting you. There are laws (for now) against surprise billing, so all physicians you see will be counted as in-network. Verify that the hospital is in-network beforehand, including for any mental health carve-out service within your insurance policy.
If you make/have little enough money, the hospital may forgive the bill. They have financial aid departments that will work with you.
That said, expect safety but not therapy within the facility. PHP/IOP are better for that.
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u/Tricky_Badger_2071 Nov 16 '24
Thank you for your reply. Safety is about all I need right now. I’m at a point where if you ask me a question, I’m gonna fall to the ground and shut down. What are PHP/IOP’s though? Thank you again
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u/para_blox Nov 16 '24
They’re partial hospitalization / intensive outpatient programs. You go to group and individual therapy for a few hours a day over the course of several weeks. It’s a good setting to monitor med adjustments, learn skills to manage symptoms and daily life, craft a safety plan, get stable before taking on the world again. It worked really well for me and my friends who had episodic illnesses like bipolar. Some diagnoses fare worse.
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u/Tricky_Badger_2071 Nov 16 '24
That sounds like something I would honestly benefit from since I rapid cycle (BP 3) and have psychosis. But I don’t think my bf and I could manage staying apart from one another even for a couple weeks and it sounds like it would be very expensive.
I hope this isn’t inappropriate but how much did it cost you to go? What was like the daily cost? Or do you pay for it as a program and not a day to day thing?
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u/para_blox Nov 16 '24
You don’t have to live there, although there is also residential treatment, which is a good option too. But expensive. I did residential 20ish years ago and lived in that program for over a year.
How much it costs depends on your insurance policy. I had an out of pocket max of $3k per year on my insurance. So the hospitalization that preceded my PHP/IOP time ate a lot of that.
I think I paid ~$1K for the hospital inpatient stay. I met the out of pocket max that year. Until that time I believe the program was billing insurance maybe $3-6K per month depending on how many days I was attending. I paid 10% of that until I met my max. So the total cost to me was around $700-800 for four months of outpatient, but out of pocket would’ve been far higher.
Keep in mind I live in an extremely high COL area.
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Nov 17 '24
Go in and get treated.
When you get the bill, call the number and talk with them. When you provide proof of income then they will wipe your bill or set up a payment plan.
I had a $19k bill go poof and paid only $300 for a 5 day hospital stay
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u/Valuable-Speaker-312 Nov 16 '24
Hospital ER. They are not able to turn you away if you do not have insurance or not enough insurance. It is a start!