Hours after the NYPD lost its eighth officer to suicide this year, NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan admitted that the city’s insurance system makes it tough for cops to seek mental health care — a sentiment echoed by therapists who talked to The Post Tuesday.
“[Group Health Incorporated] is crappy,” licensed clinical social worker Eli Rosenblatt said of the city’s insurance plan. “If I was to drop insurance I would drop GHI first.”
“I get why providers are dropping it, because they pay really crappy,” added therapist Michelle Cordero, LCSW-R. “A lot of providers aren’t accepting it at all, it’s shameful.”
GHI pays therapists $50 per session — as opposed to the $80 per session other plans like Blue Cross dole out.
Both Brooklyn-based therapists said they accept the reduced session pay because they “wanted to serve” their communities.
During an appearance on WNYC’s “Brian Lehrer Show,” Monahan acknowledged that city insurance doesn’t go far enough.
“We are looking to make a lot of changes inside the organization,” Monahan said. “Part of what we want to do is find the therapists who will take the [Group Health Incorporated] or who are willing to take the reduced rates from GHI.”
And while the NYPD has a number of honorary surgeons who pitch in and accept the insurance, the department is looking to do more, including bringing in more peer-level counselors — “someone [officers] can get to know before you are in crisis,” Monahan said.
“So we are working with Thrive to get these cops training,” he added, referring to the city’s embattled ThriveNYC mental-health program. “We just put it out. We are getting a lot of volunteers. We are looking to hire a lot more counselors, psychologists that could be out in the field.”
Monahan urged officers to contact the Employee Assistance Unit if they are “in a dark moment.”
“We will help you find the right therapist and make the right accommodations,” he said.
Additional reporting by Julia Marsh