California mental-health insurance blog
10 posts · July to September 2026The Parity blog.
Plain-language posts for California mental-health and substance-use denials. General education, not legal or clinical advice.
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Start here: Insurance denied therapy in California, five first steps →
When insurance denies residential treatment or IOP as the wrong level of care
A California record-building post for residential, PHP, or IOP denials: identify the requested level, cited criteria, clinical facts, and safer alternative.
Read the post →September 2026
When insurance cuts off therapy mid-treatment
What to save, what to ask your therapist, and how to check the next step.
How to document an insurance call without secretly recording it
A California-friendly call log for insurance appeals, plus the consent caution to know before recording a confidential phone conversation.
How to read an Explanation of Benefits after a therapy visit
Learn what a therapy EOB can tell you about a claim, allowed amount, plan payment, and patient responsibility, and what it cannot prove by itself.
August 2026
Your therapy denial feels urgent. What can you do today?
A practical California checklist for an urgent therapy denial: what to preserve, what a clinician can document, and when to contact the plan or DMHC.
Is your employer health plan self-funded? Why the answer changes the route
How to check for a self-funded plan, and why it changes where you ask for review.
What your therapist can contribute to an insurance appeal packet
A factual, low-burden way for a treating clinician to support a patient's mental-health insurance appeal without becoming the filing coordinator.
What “not medically necessary” means in a therapy denial
Learn what to look for when a California health plan says therapy or substance use care was not medically necessary.
DMHC complaint or Independent Medical Review? What’s the difference?
Understand the difference between a California DMHC complaint and Independent Medical Review without guessing which one applies.
When the law changes, know first.
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Parity is self-help document preparation, not a law firm, legal advice, representation, or clinical care.