#80 - Winning Insurance Battles

When you enter the world of differing abilities you also enter the not so pleasant world of insurance. What are the tips and tricks to ease the pain of this experience and most importantly, get your claim approved? This episode is one you will want to tag, earmark, and save to revisit again and again. It may require more than one listen to absorb all that you are getting ready to learn about the mystifying and often frustrating world of health insurance. To demystify the world of denied insurance claims and equip us is Karen Fessel, the executive director and founder of the Mental Health and Autism Insurance Project, a nonprofit with a staff of insurance ninjas talking on insurance companies on behalf of the disability community.  In addition to serving as the executive director of MHAIP, Karen co-moderates the ASDinsurancehelp and ASDMedi-Cal Yahoo users groups. Karen holds a doctorate in public health from UC Berkeley. Her prior work experience includes developing technology assessments and treatment guidelines for the Permanente Medical Group and conducting research projects at the Department of Public Health and UCSF. On the public policy front, Karen co-chaired the autism subcommittee on insurance with the East Bay Autism Regional Task Force and served as a parent advocate on the initial Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC) Autism Advisory Workgroup. She is the proud parent of a 22-year-old son with Asperger's and an 18-year-old daughter.   ***Join Kim on Instagram at Journey2Lomah***