Editorial Policy

This site exists to help people navigate the real-world journey of accessing and affording ketamine therapy for depression. It was created by someone who lived through the barriers firsthand—and reached full remission. We provide evidence-backed, experience-driven guidance on insurance coverage, cost modeling, treatment preparation, and clinic access. We are not a medical authority. We are a medically-adjacent site committed to practical navigation, not clinical decision-making.

Who We Are

This site is authored and maintained by Michael Alvear, a patient advocate who reached full remission through medically supervised ketamine therapy after navigating severe depression, insurance denials, and systemic barriers to care. He created this site to help others avoid the confusion, costs, and misinformation he encountered. Learn more on our About Page.

What We Cover—and What We Don’t

We focus exclusively on education, access, cost, preparation, and patient experience. We do not provide clinical advice. When topics touch on safety, dosing, drug interactions, or contraindications, we defer entirely to official guidelines and never interpret or paraphrase them. Our content is based on personal experience, open-science evidence, and real-world system navigation—not clinical judgment.

We are a medically-adjacent site, not a medical authority. Our goal is to help you navigate the treatment process—not decide which treatment is right for you.

Our Primary Authority Areas

We publish with firsthand authority and supporting documentation in these areas:

Insurance coverage navigation (commercial, Medicare, Medicaid)
Appeals, denials, approvals, and benefit investigation strategies
Spravato out-of-pocket cost modeling and subsidy access
Transportation resources, including NEMT programs and Medicaid rides
Clinic selection, evaluation, and red flag detection
Treatment preparation, integration logistics, and session planning

Our Secondary Coverage Areas

These are topics where we offer research-backed summaries and insight without interpretation or clinical analysis:

Remission rates, outcome modeling, and effectiveness estimates from systematic reviews
Treatment method comparisons (IV, Spravato, injection, oral) based on research data
Therapy pairing, integration techniques, and psychological readiness
FDA policy, CMS regulation, and access inequities in mental health coverage

Our Limited Scope Clinical Topics

We do not offer clinical recommendations. For safety-critical topics, we either:

Quote official guidance directly (e.g., FDA label, professional society guideline), or
Omit the content entirely to avoid risk of misinterpretation

We never paraphrase or editorialize clinical information. No dosing advice. No off-label suggestions. No treatment protocol speculation. If it’s clinical, we cite—or stay silent.

Insurance and Cost Verification

All insurance coverage claims are verified through:

Direct insurer documentation (EOBs, benefit summaries, billing guidelines)
Cross-referenced patient billing reports and clinic submissions

All clinic pricing data is gathered via direct inquiry and confirmed across multiple clinics when possible. Cost calculators are updated every 6 months and include clearly documented assumptions and modeling logic.

Methodology Transparency

Our Spravato cost models are based on real-world data gathered from 30+ clinics across the U.S., representing both urban and rural markets. Price ranges reflect common billing models: Buy-and-Bill vs. Specialty Pharmacy. We model common insurance plan types (PPO, HMO, HDHP, Medicaid, Medicare Advantage) using real plan documents, insurer guidelines, and publicly available CMS billing code data. Estimates are designed to mirror what actual patients pay, not theoretical coverage.

We provide plain-language breakdowns of all assumptions—including deductible, coinsurance, and out-of-pocket max impact—and reflect both worst-case and best-case cost scenarios.

Verification and Accuracy Standards

We use an investigative journalism model—not clinical review—for fact-checking:

Insurance claims are verified against primary documents
Subsidy programs are verified against official terms and limits
Pricing data is gathered from clinics directly and reviewed for consistency
No cost or coverage claim is published without multi-source corroboration

Source Documentation Standards

For research content, we cite only systematic reviews, meta-analyses, or long-term outcome studies with verifiable links (DOIs or archive sources). For insurance and pricing content, we rely on first-party documents (EOBs, billing codes, insurer documentation, official subsidy terms) and cross-reference against clinics and regulators.

Regulatory Change Monitoring

We actively monitor changes in federal and state policies that affect ketamine therapy access. This includes:

FDA approvals, REMS program updates, and treatment labeling changes
CMS policy updates affecting Medicare and Medicaid billing codes (e.g., G2082, G2083)
State insurance commission rulings related to prior authorizations, parity, and denial appeals

New policies are reviewed within 30 days of publication. If coverage, billing, or access rules change, affected pages are flagged and updated within that window.

Update and Correction Protocols

All cost and insurance information is reviewed on a 6-month cycle—or sooner if triggered by:

Changes to CMS codes, Medicare policy, or FDA updates
New insurer billing practices or coverage exclusions
New subsidy program launches or expirations

Corrections are documented with visible update notes on the affected page. We actively solicit reader feedback to identify outdated information or inconsistencies.

AI Assistance and Human Verification

We use AI tools to help organize content, structure documents, and discover research—but all publication decisions, medical-adjacent claims, and data models are human-verified before being published. AI is never used to generate original claims, summarize research without sources, or replace citations.

User Content and Moderation

This site does not publish or host user-submitted comments or third-party testimonials. All content is authored, curated, and fact-checked by the site owner.

Accessibility Commitment

We are committed to accessibility. If you encounter barriers to reading or navigating this site, please contact us so we can improve your experience. Mental health resources should be available to everyone.

Structured Data and Technical Signals

We use structured data (JSON-LD schema) to help search engines understand our content, author, citations, and topical relevance. Schema is applied to indicate WebPage type, author entity, medical-adjacent topics, and research citations. We do not use schema to misrepresent our content type or exaggerate its authority.

Contact and Feedback

To report an error, suggest an update, or ask a question about our methodology, please use our contact form. We welcome challenges, fact-checks, and corrections—and will review every message received.