As many as 24 million people in the United States suffer from an eating disorder. Eating disorders cross gender boundaries, affect people of all ages, race, and ethnicity, and they have the highest mortality rate out of any type of mental illness currently recognized by the medical community. If you’re suffering from an eating disorder, this information regarding MVP Health Care eating disorder coverage and treatment may be your key to beginning the road to recovery.
Types of Eating Disorders
There are three main types of eating disorders, most or all of which should be eligible for treatment as part of your MVP Health Care eating disorder coverage.
- Anorexia Nervosa – People with anorexia have a distorted image of their body, believing they need to be skinnier even when their body weight is already at or below what medical professionals deem to be healthy. Anorexics will do almost anything to keep their weight down, including extreme dieting, strenuous and frequent exercise, and even starvation.
- Bulimia Nervosa – Bulimics suffer from the same type of body dysmorphia as people with anorexia, but they tend to maintain normal or even slightly above average weight due to calories taken in during binge eating sessions. Those episodes of binge eating involve an enormous amount of food eaten in a relatively short period of time, followed by attempts to purge that food by vomiting, exercising, or abusing laxatives.
- Binge Eating Disorder – Binge eating disorder involves the excessive and rapid consumption of food in much the same manner as bulimia, but without the subsequent purging. As a result, people suffering from binge eating disorder tend to eat uncontrollably until they are obese, perhaps even morbidly so.
Seeking Treatment for Your Eating Disorder
Left untreated, eating disorders can lead to a wide range of negative side effects and both bodily and emotional harm. Physically, anorexics may experience hair loss, loss of their periods (in women), cold sensitivity, and health problems due to malnutrition and stress on their heart, while bulimics can ruin tooth enamel or actually burn their lips or mouth due to repeated regular vomiting. People with binge eating disorder can grow so heavy that they suffer from the onset of diabetes and heart disease, and all eating disorders are associated with increased risk for organ failure, anxiety, depression, suicide, and even death.
Your insurance policy may or may not include MVP Health Care eating disorder coverage, but treatment is also possible under the guise of treating a mental or behavioral disorder. The physical side effects alone require medical assistance, and most insurance companies recognize that. Any out-of-pocket costs for eating disorder rehab can be managed over time, so that there is no financial impediment that prevents you from getting well.