Q: Will my mom’s Medicare cover mental health counseling?
A: Original Medicare Part B covers individual and group therapy, activity therapies such as art therapy, partial hospitalization programs and annual depression screening.
This coverage is under behavioral health care services, which encompasses mental health illnesses, such as depression and anxiety, and addiction-related issues, such as alcoholism or substance abuse disorder.
For Original Medicare to cover these services, it’s important to see a provider who is Medicare-certified and takes assignment (i.e. accepts Medicare’s approved amount as payment in full for services you receive.)
If you have Original Medicare, you will pay a 20 percent coinsurance after meeting your Part B deductible. If you have a Medicare Advantage Plan, contact your plan to find in-network providers and learn about costs. If you have a Medicare Supplemental (Medigap) policy you could have coverage for coinsurance or copays, too.
In terms of inpatient behavioral health services, coverage is under Part A in Original Medicare and includes treatment in a psychiatric hospital or general hospital, both for inpatient mental illness treatment and inpatient substance abuse disorder treatment. Your covered days in a psychiatric hospital have a lifetime limit, but your covered days in a general hospital don’t.
Medicare covers up to 190 days of inpatient care at a psychiatric hospital in your lifetime. If you have used your lifetime days but need additional inpatient behavioral health care, Medicare might cover your care at a general hospital. General and psychiatric hospitals have the same out-of-pocket costs.
After meeting your Part A deductible, Original Medicare pays in full for the first 60 days in your benefit period. After day 60, you owe a daily amount to the hospital. (A benefit period begins when you enter a hospital as an inpatient, and it ends when you have been out of the hospital or a skilled nursing facility for 60 days in a row.)
Again, someone with Medicare Supplemental insurance might also have coverage for their Part A deductible and out-of-pocket costs.
Q: I was an active retiree, serving my community and church in many volunteer roles, but since COVID hit, I feel like a hermit. Some days I don’t even feel like getting out of bed. With so many people suffering physically, I feel ridiculous that this pandemic seems to be hitting me mentally.
A: We receive many calls from people who are having difficulty coping with the pandemic, for a variety of reasons, including fear of contracting COVID-19, fear of dependency or lack of self-sufficiency, worry about limited financial resources, fear of institutionalization and fear of a decline in health and mobility.
Common reactions can take the form of withdrawing and/or isolating yourself from family and friends, concealing the full extent of the disaster’s impact, no longer caring about participating in activities that were once enjoyable and lack of motivation to rebuild social connections or start over.
Mental health experts emphasize that even if you haven’t been directly touched by the coronavirus, no one who experiences a disaster of this magnitude goes untouched by it, and these are normal reactions to a very abnormal event in our lives.
In March 2020, the Region IV Area Agency on Aging launched the Friendly Caller initiative. This service provides a weekly “check-in” call to any senior in Berrien, Cass and Van Buren counties who wants to talk with someone each week.
The program, now serving more than 200 seniors weekly, has the capacity to serve more. AAA invites any senior who wants a weekly call, to sign up by calling 800-654-2810.
Here are more resources from the Michigan Department of Health & Human Services that are available for anyone experiencing emotional distress and seeking guidance:
- Michigan Stay Well Counseling via the COVID-19 Hotline: Call 888-535-6136 and press 8 to speak with a counselor. Confidential and free, help is available 24/7. Foreign language interpreters also are available.
- If you are experiencing emotional stress and anxiety but are more comfortable texting than talking, get help from Michigan Crisis Text Line: Text RESTORE to 741741. It’s available 24/7.
- If you are living with serious mental illness or substance abuse challenges and feel it will help lower your stress to talk with someone who understands these issues, get help from Michigan Peer Warmline: Call 888-733-7753. It’s available daily from 10 a.m.-2 a.m.
- If you are thinking of taking your life, get help from National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: Call 800-273-8255. It’s available 24/7.