Insuring Hope to Rebuild Lives |
 By Colleen Kula, MD
Since the admittance of our first resident in 2006, Timberline Knolls Residential Treatment Center has aggressively campaigned to help make treatment available for women who need it, including minimizing financial hurdles by maximizing insurance coverage. Four years later, we've definitely made progress, but there are still miles to walk.
In 2008, we had the opportunity to work for better treatment access for eating disorder patients by supporting passage of House Bill 1432, designed to strengthen the Illinois mental health insurance parity law by providing fair and equal health insurance coverage for those suffering from anorexia nervosa and bulimia.
With a compassionate and unified group of current and former residents, volunteers and professional staff alike, we traveled by bus from the TK campus outside Chicago to the Illinois state capital in Springfield. There Timberline Knolls' medical director, Dr. Kim Dennis, spoke passionately in her testimony before the legislature urging all citizens to persuade friends and family to make calls and send letters in support of the mental health parity legislation. Shortly after our trip to the capital, the Illinois House and Senate narrowly passed HB 1432 (overriding the veto of then Gov. Rod Blagojevich), and after that, the U.S. Congress approved mental health parity legislation that outlaws health insurance discrimination against Americans with mental health and substance-abuse condition in employer-sponsored health plans.
However, while federal legislation currently requires insurance plans to provide coverage for mental illnesses, eating disorders and addiction disorders equal to what they provide for physical
illnesses, still today, roughly 67 percent of adults and 80 percent of children requiring mental health services do not receive the help they need in large part because of discriminatory insurance practices.
At Timberline Knolls Residential Treatment Center, we understand that the cost of care for women needing treatment for eating disorders, substance abuse and other affective disorders is a barrier for recovery. We know the financial burden often disrupts lives and causes emotional turmoil. Yet, in so many cases, treatment is necessary to finally arrive at fulfilling and long lives for the women who need treatment and their families. We have worked with insurance carriers to realize the maximum benefits for women to pay for treatment, and because many benefit providers recognize Timberline Knolls' success at helping women make real-life changes and avoid repeated relapses and hospitalizations, we're able to partner with insurance companies so residents receive treatment on an
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 in-network basis. Families benefit from lower out-of-pocket expenses,and we not only coordinate the reimbursement process at the beginning of a resident's stay, but manage to ensure coverage from intake to discharge. As a result, residents and loved ones see our insurance staff as an advocate for them.
No matter the course, the mission at Timberline Knolls remains to make a real life difference for our residents. The admissions team at Timberline Knolls remains in constant contact with referral sources, parents and other family members to help find the best possible treatment path for patients and residents. This dynamic process doesn't stop until the resident realizes the recovery she desires and deserves. We're energized when patients want to recover and relentless about finding the care that's needed.
One key treatment program at Timberline Knolls is the reciprocal referral program in which we offer every individual the continuum of care that secures the most appropriate treatment for families as well as the clients our referral sources serve. Recently Timberline Knolls announced a relationship with Blue Cross Blue Shield with whom TK is now in-network, enabling us to more easily provide treatment support of many patients. Additionally, the country's largest independent behavioral health care company, ValueOptions, has selected Timberline Knolls as a provider in its Diagnostic Specialty Unit (DSU) Program. As a DSU provider, TK has been specifically recognized to treat eating disorders, dual diagnosis, complex adolescent cases and complex cases that might benefit from intensive Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT).
So what's on the horizon for health insurance and eating disorders? An industry advocacy group has been hard at work attempting to make treatment of eating disorders a public health priority. The group's goal is to build further momentum around the proposed FREED Act (Federal Response to Eliminate Eating Disorders Act, H.R. 1193). This is the first eating disorders legislation to comprehensively promote research, treatment, education, and prevention programs. The good news is that with early detection and adequate and appropriate treatment, eating disorders can be overcome. As with other mental illnesses, we know that eating disorders need not be hopeless, chronic, or deadly and that early diagnosis and treatment bring greater chances for survival and complete recovery. That's why Timberline Knolls will continue to support initiatives like the FREED Act that make care achievable for those who need it most.
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Timberline
Knolls Events
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February 11-13 – TK
medical director Kimberly
Dennis to speak at the first-time Southeastern Eating
Disorder Conference in Atlanta. TK also to sponsor and exhibit. For more
information, contact (224) 829-6949 or rhuber@timberlineknolls.com.
February 20 – Timberline Knolls to exhibit as silver sponsor at the International Association of Eating
Disorders Professionals (iaedp) SoCal Fundraiser in Beverly Hills, CA.
For more information, contact (949) 413-6945 or kmiller@timberlineknolls.com.
February 24 – Timberline Knolls to co-host a networking lunch with Mountainside Treatment and the Farley
Center from noon to 2 p.m. at Tarantino Restaurant in Westport, CT. For
more information, contact (914) 912-7561 or Inewhall@timberlineknolls.com.
March 11 – Timberline Knolls to participate at Fairfield County’s “What’s New with
You?” Mark DeDonato from TK and Paul Gallant from Paul Gallant and
Associates will present at this first-in-a-series event. From 8:30 to 10
a.m. at LeFarm Restaurant in Westport, CT. For more information, contact
(914) 912-7561 or Inewhall@timberlineknolls.com.
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March 11-13 – Timberline Knolls to participate at the Texas Association for Marriage and Family Therapy
(TAMFT) Annual Conference in San Antonio, TX. For more information,
contact (214) 862-8040 or sdevilbiss@timberlineknolls.com.
March 11-14 – Timberline Knolls to exhibit at the iaedp Symposium in Orlando, FL. For more information,
contact (224) 829-6949 or rhuber@timberlineknolls.com.
March 18-20 – Timberline Knolls to exhibit at Ben Franklin Institute's “Summit for Clinical
Excellence” in Chicago. For more information, contact (630)
484-7359 or toconnor@timberlineknolls.com.
March 18-19 – Timberline Knolls to host its first On-Site of 2010, inviting mental health and addiction
professionals from around the U.S. to tour and experience TK's campus and
learn about its leading clinical program. For more information, contact
(630) 343-2387 or mdevries@timberlineknolls.com.
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