I am saddened to write this review but it needs to be said:…read moreAfter Alter Behavioral Health agreed to readmit my transgender daughter, Brady, I was relieved because I truly believed she was returning to the best place for her care.
Erica and Jack from No Matter What Recovery have supported our family for years and never gave up on Brady. Because Brady's mental health diagnosis is so complex, many residential programs have declined to accept her. Erica continued advocating, making calls, and pushing until Brady was finally given another opportunity to return to Alter. Not many residential programs are equipped to care for someone with Brady's high acuity, and Alter's clinical team had previously provided outstanding treatment two years ago. Brady remained at UCLA Resnick Psychiatric Hospital for more than 20 days while we waited for an in-network bed to become available at Alter. Once she was admitted, however, my experience with Alter's admissions and billing department changed dramatically.For approximately 10 days, I received repeated calls and messages from Jackie in billing and Morgan in admissions regarding an alleged Cigna insurance balance from nearly two years earlier . I explained multiple times that I was experiencing a severe Crohn's disease flare-up, and my only priority was making sure Brady received the treatment she desperately needed.
Despite this, I felt pressured to sign numerous financial documents and make payments before a clear explanation of what I supposedly owed. At one point, they could not even tell me the exact amount of the alleged balance. Feeling desperate to avoid anything interfering with Brady's treatment,
After taking time to think clearly, I informed Alter that I wanted my attorney to review the documents before agreeing to anything further and requested invoices supporting the alleged balance.
Almost immediately after, Brady was discharged from residential treatment approximately two weeks earlier than expected. From my perspective, the timing was impossible to ignore. Brady still needed residential care..
After Brady's discharge, I contacted UnitedHealthcare myself because I wanted to understand whether Alter had exhausted the authorization process.
Based on what I was told, I came away believing that additional efforts to request continued days had not been made and I was lied to! That confirmed my concern that Brady's discharge was not simply the result of an unavoidable insurance denial. I had even shared these concerns with Erica, one of Brady's clinicians, who had been kind, compassionate, and had genuinely believed Alter would not discharge a client prematurely. She's amazing btw!
What makes this even more difficult is that, after Brady had been transferred elsewhere, beds were available at Alter despite our family having waited more than 20 days at UCLA Resnick for an in-network opening!!!
One of the most painful parts of this experience was the stark difference in how our family was treated over the years. When Brady was previously covered under a comprehensive Cigna plan, Alter actively pursued having Brady in treatment and made us feel like valued clients.
This time, under UnitedHealthcare, our experience felt completely different. We went from feeling welcomed and supported to feeling pressured over an old insurance claim while our child was in psychiatric treatment. Whether intentional or not, the contrast in how we were treated before and after the insurance change was impossible for me to ignore.
Even after Brady left the program, the billing calls texts and email. I want to make one thing very clear: the clinical staff were exceptional!!!!
The therapists, nurses, behavioral health technicians, psychiatrists, and frontline staff treated Brady with compassion, dignity, professionalism, and genuine care.
I am especially grateful to Erica on Brady's clinical team, Val the nurse, and Natalie the therapist consistently treated our family with kindness, empathy, and unwavering support. Throughout Brady's stay, they genuinely believed Alter would continue fighting for Brady's treatment because that is what they believed was in Brady's best interest. My concerns are not with the clinicians who cared for my daughter every day, but with the administrative and financial decisions that ultimately determined whether she could remain in treatment.
My concerns are directed entirely at Alter's admissions, utilization review, and billing practices. Families with loved ones in psychiatric crisis should never feel pressured into signing financial documents or making payments, understanding what they allegedly owe, and having the opportunity to seek legal advice. They should also have confidence that every reasonable effort will be made to advocate for continued treatment when medically necessary!!!
We trusted Alter during one of the most vulnerable times in our lives. Our family deserved better, and I sincerely hope no other family experiences what we did!!
