Insurance Companies Set An Unreasonable Bar For Mental Health Coverage

"I'm not able to authorize payment."

It's a line I've heard many times in the five years I've been practicing psychiatry, so I was ready for it. I'd been on the phone for 45 minutes telling the insurance company representative how my patient came into the hospital emergency room so depressed he could hardly function. How he'd missed nearly every day of work for the last few weeks and was close to losing his job.