detection i'm here simply to tell you how we fought for his life when he was sick little did we know that day that we would also have to battle with our insurance company for payments under our policy health partners approved the first thirty days stay on january fifteenth they denied the second thirty days of treatment because they said it was not medically necessary for him to receive treatment and patient facility on the advice of his counselors would pay the additional twelve thousand dollars to continue his treatment for another thirty days february twenty third we wrote a letter of appeal march nineteenth that was denying july fourteenth resubmitted a second appeal it was denied that same day we went before the third and our claim was approved on august fifth the process took seven months seven months and it was not seven months of waiting rather it was seven months of writing e mails and appeal letters making phone calls asking for information about the medical necessity criteria and being told that there wasn't anything available doing our own research talking with experts rick busting medical files and  pages of manuals written for medical professionals preparing the actual presentation for the health partners board navigating the whole appeals process without any assistance and then sign it was physically and emotionally exhausting they say that a picture is worth a thousand words i hope the picture that you'll remember from my presentation tonight this is binder this is the binder that contains the information that i gathered her appeal process it doesn't include the hundred sixty e mail exchanges that were part of this process and this process was incredibly time consuming without my training as a c p a and thirty five years of experience interpret in tax laws documenting client files and representing clients before the i r s i'm not sure i would have had the tenacity or the skills to pursue this appeals process if i had been unable to challenge the assumptions of the experts my son w medical about this that he was entitled to under the law i am firmly convinced that our insurance company expected us to give up the fight because the process was just too hard too time consuming and too confusing especially during a time of extreme emotional distress when we were dealing with our son's a life threatening illness and it makes you wonder what happens to families who don't have the time or the skills or the resources to endure such a process collecting insurance benefits under a policy shouldn't be this hard and it shouldn't be harder for those suffering from addiction and mental health issues than it is for other policyholders with medical health issues i have submitted a longer version  testimony in writing to the members of congress presented today present today and it details the overwhelming process we had to go through to defend our son's rights to additional treatment based on medical necessity i hope you will take the time to become familiar with the particulars of our story because i think they highlight common barriers to treatment that exist and will continue to exist until we see full enforcement and implementation of the parity law i would like to end my testimony testimony with some good news about the benefits of treatment for the disease of addiction our son is doing great yous been sober almost two and a half years is pursuing a medical engineering degree is got a great network of friends in recovery and he has restored relationships with this family we are so incredibly grateful for each and every day of his sobriety we are grateful that we have the financial resources including insurance fund of us to get him the help that he so desperately needed it's important that other families have access to benefits under their policies and do not have to fight so hard in life saving treatment thank you