What is Aetna?
Aetna, a subsidiary of CVS Health Company, is an insurance provider offering various types of healthcare plans to individuals, families, and groups. The company is committed to providing equitable opportunities for everyone to achieve optimum health. Nearly 39 million people rely on Aetna for their health coverage.
What kind of health plans and benefits does Aetna offer?
In partnership with CVS Health, Aetna offers health benefit plans to individuals, families, students, and organizations of all sizes. Some of these plans include:
- Vision, dental, and supplemental insurance plans: These include plans like Aetna Vision Preferred and Aetna Dental Direct. Vision plans offer access to national retailers such as LensCrafters, Pearle Vision, and Target Optical, as well as online retailers such as Ray-Ban Befitting, Oakley, Contacts Direct, and Glasses.com. For members with a supplemental health plan, Aetna offers cash for accidents, critical illness patients, and those who have hospital stays.
- Student health plans: An Aetna Student Health plan offers benefits like visits to campus student health centers and local hospitals. Students can access over 1.2 million providers in Aetna's national network. They also get healthy discounts on fitness, vision, dental care, health coaching, daily support like the 24/7 health line, open enrollment assistance, and an on-campus presence.
Programs like "On Call International" help students get medical assistance and information at any time in the world. The program also has features like medical evacuation, prescription drug replacement, and repatriation services. They can get emergency travel arrangements, language translation, or even help finding lost luggage or travel documents. Students may also get security assistance during a natural disaster or political evacuation with the program.
Aetna's "Guardian Angel Program" helps identify students (through claims data) who have recently survived an overdose and need the right support. Through this program, students can get mental health and physical assessments from nurses or clinicians. The providers in this program will also give individuals information on naloxone and other strategies to reduce harm, direct students to in-network providers, and offer ongoing support and follow-up care if necessary.
- Affordable Care Act (ACA) plans for individuals and families: ACA plans include several essential benefits, including- pregnancy and maternity care, hospitalization, prescription medications, laboratory services, mental health services, substance use disorder services, newborn care, pediatric services (including both oral and vision care), emergency services, ambulatory services, rehabilitative/habilitative services, as well as chronic disease management. You may also get other benefits like preventive screenings, virtual care at zero cost, and up to $100 allowance to shop over-the-counter CVS Health brand wellness products. You will receive a $25 allowance each quarter of the year for select CVS Health products.
Note that allowance that has not been used does not carry over to the next quarter and that this benefit is not available in California, Missouri, or New Jersey. Most plans also include a special $3 copay for over 200 generic drugs to help you get access to the medicine you need and also keep your pharmacy coverage costs down. Note that this benefit is not available in California and New Jersey.
- Commercial health coverage: Aetna offers comprehensive clinical programs and health and wellness solutions to benefit employer groups, individuals, part-time and hourly workers, and labor groups.
- Medicare plans: This includes Medicare Advantage plans, Aetna prescription drug plans to pay for outpatient drugs, vaccines, and other medical supplies, and Medicare supplement plans for some costs not covered by original Medicare (Parts A and B).
- Medicaid plans: These plans offer health insurance to eligible low-income adults, children, seniors, pregnant women, and people with disabilities.
If you wish to find an Aetna psychiatrist near you, you can easily book an appointment with one on Zocdoc.
Understanding deductible and lifetime limit
A deductible is the amount of money an insured person must pay out of pocket each year to be eligible for healthcare services before the insurance provider pays for them. The amount payable in place of the deductible varies as per your chosen plan. Generally, the larger the monthly premium, the lower the deductible.
A lifetime limit refers to the total lifetime benefits you can receive from your insurance company. An insurance company may set a total lifetime dollar limit on benefits (for example, a $1 million lifetime cap), limits on specific benefits (such as 200,000 lifetime limit on organ transplant or one gastric bypass per lifetime), or a mix of the two. The insurance company will no longer pay for covered services when a lifetime limit is reached.
You can refer to our guide to know more about other insurance terminologies.
Health insurance vs. life insurance
Health insurance helps cover medical costs such as doctor appointments, hospital stays, drugs, tests, and treatments. It ensures that people can afford medical care and remain healthy.
Life insurance provides a lump amount to the beneficiaries in the event of the policyholder's death. The death benefit covers future income loss and also takes care of outstanding bills and obligations such as funeral fees, hospital charges, and other debts—or to support college savings accounts or retirement years. It provides the family with financial stability, ensuring they do not suffer due to their lack of income.
What is behavioral health?
Behavioral health is a broad discipline that includes mental health, lifestyle, substance use, behavior patterns, relationships, and many other issues.
Behavioral experts can help people understand their cognitive processes, emotions, and stress reactions so that they can manage them in a healthy, safe, and appropriate manner. This can help people overcome addictions, modify habits, and prepare for life's obstacles.
People can benefit from behavioral health therapy at different stages of their lives. It can be beneficial for people dealing with personal challenges, such as divorce or the death of a loved one. It can also be helpful for people diagnosed and struggling with mental health conditions, such as bipolar disorder, depression, personality disorders, anxiety, or some other concern.
If you are facing such struggles in your life, you can look for an Aetna psychiatrist near you to obtain affordable healthcare with a wide variety of treatment options.
Who is a psychiatrist, and what are some of the psychiatry subspecialties?
A psychiatrist is a medical provider who focuses on treating mental illnesses. Since psychiatrists have medical degrees and are trained in psychiatry, they can prescribe medicines to treat mental health conditions. They can also perform physical exams and order diagnostic testing in addition to providing psychotherapy. Psychiatrists employ a variety of methods to determine if a person's symptoms are psychiatric, caused by a physical condition, or a combination of both.
Several subspecialties in psychiatry allow practitioners to focus on specific illnesses or age groups, which include:
- Addiction psychiatry
- Adolescent and child psychiatry
- Forensic psychiatry
- Geriatric psychiatry
- Neuropsychiatry
- Occupational psychiatry
- Psychosomatic medicine
How to find an Aetna psychiatrist near you in Los Angeles, California?
Finding an experienced and dependable psychiatrist who serves your needs can be challenging. Consider choosing a psychiatrist who specializes in your specific mental health condition. Moreover, look for in-network providers for cost-effective healthcare costs. Zocdoc makes this process simple by helping you find a trustworthy psychiatrist in your area who will accept your insurance plan.
Visit the Zocdoc website and look for top-rated psychiatrists in Los Angeles, CA. Select the condition or specialty, location, and insurance plan (Aetna), and you will get a list of practitioners based on your preferences.
If you are unable to locate your insurance plan in the drop-down list, you can upload a picture of your insurance card, and Zocdoc will scan it to identify your likely plan. Please note that this service is applicable only to medical insurance cards and not to dental and vision insurance. If you need assistance uploading your medical insurance card, contact Zocdoc's service team for support. For additional insurance-related information, visit Zocdoc's patient help center.
Every provider listed on Zocdoc has a detailed profile with information about their practice location, visit reasons, educational qualifications, hospital affiliations, years of experience, certifications, gender, languages spoken, etc. You can also read patient reviews on Zocdoc to select the right medical expert for your medical needs. You can book an in-person or virtual appointment with an Aetna psychiatrist near you on weekends or before 10 AM or after 5 PM also, depending on the doctor's availability.
You can also check out Zocdoc's guides on health insurance for college students and freelancers. All bookings on Zocdoc are simple, secure, and free!
Health insurance statistics in California
A report by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, based on the 2019 and 2020 California Health Interview Surveys, provides insights into health insurance coverage in California. Despite subsidies from Covered California, the market for privately purchased insurance remained relatively stable, covering around 5.6% of the population.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA, or "Obamacare") significantly expanded the Medicaid program, known as Medi-Cal, in California, offering a publicly supported option for previously uninsured individuals. Employer-based insurance covered approximately 59.5% of people under 65, including children (ages 18 and younger due to Medi-Cal's extended coverage). Despite these measures, about 7.7% of the population, or 2.5 million people, remained uninsured.
According to a 2024 survey by the California Health Care Foundation, Californians, particularly those with low incomes, continue to face high healthcare costs and medical debt. More than one-third of Californians (≈38%) and more than half of the people with low incomes (≈52%) reported having medical debt.
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