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April 14, 2024
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ComPsych Insurance for Drug & Alcohol Rehab
ComPsych is one of the world’s largest employee assistance programs (EAP). In fact, the organization offers coverage for some 60,000 organizations in the United Sates, or over 130 million people. If you’re looking for drug and alcohol rehab services, ComPsych can help. However, it is an employee assistance program and not an insurance program. ComPsych is different from your employer-provided health insurance plan and will function in addition to it rather than instead of it.
This means that you can seek out behavioral health and treatment through ComPsych in addition to any treatment you seek out through your health plan. The benefit is that treatment through ComPsych should be free or nearly free, will have a managed provider, and will ensure that you are matched to a program by a professional. The con is that you will have to go through an employer-provided behavioral health program, which typically means disclosing your health needs to your employer.
Does ComPsych Offer Treatment for Drugs & Alcohol?
ComPsych itself offers extensive behavioral health programs and treatment. However, whether or not those are available to you in your organization typically depends on the organization, what it’s negotiated with ComPsych, and what it’s willing to offer to its employees. This means that some organizations will work with ComPsych but will offer a bare bones employee-assistance program. This means you might get assistance with short-term finding help and short-term getting into treatment. However, you won’t get any direct behavioral health treatment.
On the other hand, if your employer has opted for the behavioral health module with ComPsych, you could get a significant amount of direct care including hands-on case management.
This means you’ll have to check what’s on offer at your specific organization because it can vary significantly from employer to employer.
What Drug & Alcohol Treatment Does ComPsych Offer?
ComPsych offers a full range of behavioral health treatment services, providing your employer has opted into them. If your employer sources behavioral health though ComPsych, you’ll have access to case management, administrators, and typically referral into other drug and alcohol related care programs.
This includes:
Access to a network for cheaper rates
Tracking of program outcomes
Case management to ensure you’re getting the treatment you need
Utilization management to help you make the most of what you have
24-hour pre-certification or approval to ensure you can move into treatment as quickly as possible
Disability claim assistance in the case that you have to file for short term disability (substance use disorders qualify).
In addition, ComPsych will help you get into any behavioral health treatments approved by your employer. This means that substance use disorder treatment is required by law to be included, although you may receive less coverage for inpatient or residential treatment versus outpatient treatment.
Typically, you’ll have access to:
Medication Assisted Programs
You’ll typically have access to medication assisted programs including medication rather than detox, methadone programs, and the option to get treatment for opioid use disorder.
Inpatient Treatment
You can typically get coverage and assistance with any inpatient drug treatment program especially those including or requiring prescription medication.
Outpatient Treatment
You’ll have full access to outpatient treatment programs including managed programs and medication assisted programs.
Aftercare
ComPsych supports follow ups and aftercare programs to ensure the best program results.
However, the exact coverage and what you get will depend on your employer.
What Are My Alternatives to ComPsych Behavioral Health?
ComPsych is an EAP and not an insurance program. This means that you can always go to your insurance or health plan and look for your own healthcare provider through that route. This will mean that you’ll have more options in terms of treatment, you won’t have to disclose your drug or alcohol problem to your boss, and you’ll have more options in terms of types of treatment.
Here, you will be able to go to any insurance provider included in your network if you have a provider network. You may also be able to pay more to go to any provider even outside of your network. Here, you’ll have to check with your health plan for details as coverage can vary significantly from plan to plan as well as from employer to employer.
Why Use EAP?
There are plenty of reasons to use an EAP program like ComPsych. For example, if your employer provides behavioral health through ComPsych, it is most likely to be free or nearly free.
- ComPsych does not typically charge employees for healthcare or behavioral healthcare related costs. This is free treatment.
- You will typically get a case manager to help you make the right choices including where to go, what kind of treatment you need, and when to follow up.
- You’ll have a third-party checking in on you to monitor progress and to move you back into treatment if things aren’t going as planned.
- You won’t have to utilize “just” ComPsych. ComPsych treatment and services can be supplemental to your existing addiction treatment, which means you can go to a longer inpatient program and then follow up with free care provided through your employer.
However, there are cons to EAP as well. For example, they will limit where you can go and what you can attend. You’ll also normally have to disclose to your employer – although some programs will allow you to get help through the third-party of ComPsych without involving your employer at all. You’ll want to check with your organization to see what the options are.
Getting Help
If you’re struggling with a substance use disorder, ComPsych may be a great way to get assistance. However, ComPsych is not an insurance program and it does not provide health plans. Instead, it provides employee assistance through your employer. This may be provided as an EAP or as case management and behavioral care, allowing you to get into treatment programs for free or at an extremely low cost. In either case, ComPsych is in addition to rather than supplementing or replacing your actual insurance, which means that you can always seek out a different rehab or addiction treatment program or use ComPsych to supplement what you’re already getting. In either case, you’ll have to discuss your needs with your ComPsych consultant to see what you qualify for.
