A patient's guide to this site

Insurance companies publish lists of the doctors and therapists in each plan. Independent studies have repeatedly found those lists carry entries patients can't use. This site checks the lists and grades them.

The ZIP lookup and the plan grades go live on October 26, 2026. The steps below for demanding care work today, whatever plan you have.

What the grades mean

Every plan gets a grade in every county it covers, based only on the plan's own published provider list.

• A or B: the list is internally consistent and current. Most entries have real contact information and identifiers the federal registry recognizes.
• C or D: a meaningful share of entries have problems: placeholder phone numbers like 999-999-9999, years-old update dates, or identifiers the federal registry has deactivated.
• F: much of the list is unusable exactly as published. In the worst files, most entries have no working contact information at all.
• n=4: the plan lists fewer than 10 mental health providers in that county. We do not grade a list that small. The small number is the finding.

One limit: the grades are computed from the insurers' files, not from phone calls. A good grade means the plan's published list is consistent and current. It does not promise that an office will answer the phone or have appointments open.

If you are choosing a plan

1. Find your county with the search box on the home page, or through your state's page.
2. For each plan you are considering, look at two things together: the mental health grade and the provider count. A plan with grade B and 400 listed providers gives you far better odds than a plan with grade B and 12.
3. Click the plan's name to see its whole footprint. A plan that grades F in every county it operates in tells you how the insurer maintains its lists everywhere.

If you already have a plan and can't reach a therapist

You have more power here than most people realize. Use it in this order.

1. Document every attempt. Date, provider name, number called, and what happened: disconnected, not in network, not accepting, no response. Three to five documented failures is a strong record.
2. Ask your plan, in writing, for an in-network appointment. Call the member services number on your card, then follow up in writing. Ask them to name a mental health provider who is in network, accepting new patients, and reachable, with an appointment within a reasonable time.
3. If they can't, ask for a network gap exception. Ask your plan in writing to cover an out-of-network provider at your in-network cost sharing, because the plan has no accessible in-network provider. Most insurers call this a network gap exception or just a network exception. Ask member services which term your plan uses and which form it needs, because some plans require the out-of-network provider to file the request rather than you. There is no general federal right to this, so whether you can insist on it depends on your state's insurance law and your policy's own terms. If the plan refuses, that is an adverse benefit determination, and you can appeal it internally and then to an independent external reviewer.
   ⚠️ Do not ask for a "network adequacy exception." Regulators use that phrase for permission granted to the insurer to fall short of a network standard, which is the opposite of what you want.
4. If the directory said a provider was in network and they were not, say so. Under the No Surprises Act, if your plan's directory, website, or phone line told you a provider was in network when they were not, your cost sharing is capped at the in-network amount and the plan must apply your in-network deductible and out-of-pocket maximum (42 U.S.C. 300gg-115(b)). Screenshot the listing. If you ask by phone whether a provider is in network, the plan owes you a written answer within one business day and has to keep it on file for two years, so ask for it in writing. The same law requires your insurer to re-verify every listing at least every 90 days. This covers wrong network status. It does not cover a provider correctly listed as in network who has a six-week wait.
5. If the plan refuses, complain to your state insurance department. Every state has one, and network adequacy is their territory. Find yours through the NAIC state insurance department directory. Attach your documented attempts.
6. Attach proof that the problem is the plan, not your luck. A regulator can shrug off one person's failed calls. It's much harder to shrug off the insurer's own published file. Three concrete steps:
   1. Find your plan's page on this site (search your ZIP on the home page, then click your plan's name). The page has a section called "Using this page in a complaint" with a paragraph you can copy, already filled in with your plan's numbers.
   2. Save that page as a PDF (Print, then Save as PDF) and attach it.
   3. Download the insurer's evidence file, linked in that same section. It is a spreadsheet listing every broken record we found in the insurer's published directory: the placeholder phone numbers like 999-999-9999, the deactivated provider IDs, the years-old dates. Attach it too.

This is general information, not legal advice. Marketplace coverage questions can also go to the federal help line at HealthCare.gov.

If your state runs its own exchange

This site covers the 30 states that use HealthCare.gov for enrollment. The District of Columbia and 20 states, including California, New York, and Illinois, run their own enrollment platforms, and we do not have their data yet. Arkansas and Oregon run their own marketplaces but enroll through HealthCare.gov, so they are covered here. Oregon moves to its own platform on November 1, 2026 and will drop out of this data from plan year 2027.

The complaint steps above still work exactly the same way. Document your attempts, put your requests in writing, and complain to your state insurance department through the NAIC state insurance department directory.

Words this site uses