one in five Americans in 2020 received treatment for their mental health — with 16% being prescribed medication.
One such barrier is step therapy. Step therapy is a common insurance practice where before a patient can be prescribed a medication their provider thinks would be the best treatment, they must first sample other, less-expensive drugs; insurance will not cover the provider-recommended treatment until cheaper alternatives are tried first.
Untreated or inadequately treated mental illnesses also pose a serious impediment to our economic growth. A study published by thefound that major depressive disorder , among the most common SMI’s, is associated with significant lost work performance, equating to 27 excess lost workdays annually per worker suffering from this ailment.