If you are struggling with the disease of addiction, you may be worried about how you’re going to get treatment. Addiction is a potentially fatal disease, but recovery is possible, and the last thing you should have to worry about is how you’re going to be able to afford the cost of treatment. The great news is that if you have Optum Insurance, your policy is going to cover the majority of your addiction treatment. In recent years, a law was passed with the Affordable Care Act that ensures that all insurance plans must have addiction treatment available.
Much like with any other medical procedure or doctor visit you have, there may be a co-pay or a deductible that you have to pay. This is extremely helpful because addiction treatment can be thousands of dollars. With your insurance plan, you may have coverage for all of the levels of care from detoxification to residential and outpatient treatment. Through the treatment process, you’ll receive the help that you need to learn how to live a life free from your addiction for good.
Which Level of Care is Right for You?
Optum Insurance is going to decide which level of care you should go to, and this is often the result of an evaluation you go through before the treatment process. This is a good thing because without going through an assessment, you may go to residential treatment when you need outpatient treatment or vice versa. First, you’ll meet with an addiction specialist who will see how severe your addiction is through evaluation and which level of care will benefit you the most. For most people, detoxification is a must to overcome your dependence, and then it’s a matter of whether you need inpatient or outpatient treatment.
Those who need outpatient treatment are usually those who have less severe forms of addiction, or they have already completed a residential program. Typically, outpatient is a good option for people who have just started abusing alcohol or drugs, and it’s also essential that you have a supportive living environment. Your insurance may be through your work, and you may qualify for time off through the Family Medical Leave Act, but you may also be able to continue working while you go through outpatient treatment. Outpatient treatment provides you with individual and group therapy that works with your schedule.
If you’re someone who struggles with a severe addiction to alcohol or drugs, or if you’re someone who has an issue with chronic relapse, it will most likely be recommended that you go through residential treatment. Addiction can be a potent disease, and as you may already know, sometimes you can’t even trust yourself. Residential treatment provides you with the opportunity to stay safe from relapse while entirely focusing on your addiction recovery. This is also extremely helpful if some of your primary triggers are your living situation, work, or other factors in your daily life. By the time you complete residential treatment, you can easily transition back to your life with new tools to deal with your triggers.
Insurance and Detox
The detoxification process is one of the most expensive parts of treatment because it involves being cared for by physicians and nurses, but your Optum Insurance will assist with the cost. Detox is a crucial part of the treatment process because many people are at risk of relapse or potentially fatal symptoms of withdrawal when they try to quit cold turkey. By taking advantage of your insurance policy, you will know that you’re going to be comfortable as well as safe throughout the process. With breakthroughs in addiction medicine, your symptoms of withdrawal will be minimized, and you’ll see that recovery is possible.
Depending on the substance or substances you were abusing, the symptoms of withdrawal can vary. When it comes to substances like alcohol, opioid, and benzodiazepines, you may experience both physical and psychological symptoms. Stimulants like cocaine and meth usually only have psychological withdrawal symptoms. There are a variety of different medications that can help decrease these symptoms, as your mind and your body begin to heal. These medications, as well as the tests you go through as you continue to detox, may all be covered by your insurance plan as well.
Coverage for Addiction Therapy
Your insurance provider wants to make sure that you don’t have to go back to treatment again, and this is why they only work with the best treatment centers. The facilities that Optum work with are going to use evidence-based treatment methods to help you recover. These are various forms of therapy that are backed by the scientific community because they have been proven to help people overcome their addiction to drugs or alcohol. These multiple therapies can also help if you struggle with any symptoms of mental illness such as anxiety, depression, trauma, or any other disorder.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is one of the primary evidence-based treatments that can help with your addiction as well as your mental health. Throughout your addiction, your mind has been trained to turn to alcohol or drugs every time you have a trigger. The goal of CBT is to help you first identify your triggers more regularly and then replace your old behaviors with new ones. Your past actions were making your problems worse, but as you begin to practice healthy behaviors, you’ll see how your life begins to improve. For example, when you connect with your support group and get physical activity rather than turning to alcohol or drugs, you’re retraining your brain to do activities that are positive for your mental health as well as your recovery.
If you have Optum, allow us to help you find the right addiction treatment center. We work with drug and alcohol rehab facilities around the country that accept Optum, and we’ll assist you with finding the one that’s right for you, so give us a call today.
