To Take or Not To Take--Insurance?
The decision whether to be an in-network provider for most insurance panels was difficult to make. If you want to use insurance, particularly out of network benefits, for your telehealth, it will be important for you to check and make sure that they will cover services. People often wish to use their insurance for all kinds of understandable reasons. Primarily, the advantage in using insurance coverage is the reduction of the patient's cost for covered services. This is a real concern and for some, services are not possible without the use of insurance benefits. Yet, having practiced in both manners in the past--taking insurance and not taking insurance--I find that clients have tended to exhibit a much greater sense of security about their therapy when their insurance company is not involved. Paying privately:
- enhances client confidentiality (the insurance company has no access to your personal data)
- enhances client choice and power (an insurance company is not determining how long you can be seen, if you can be seen, etc.)
- promotes a focus on health and strength rather than an excess focus on pathology (as indicated elsewhere, insurance companies often require the therapist to document that treatment is "medically necessary" in order to justify payment for services and will sometimes claw back payments after therapy is over, leaving the client to make up the difference anyway)
- eliminates confusion and reduces anxiety over billing--there are no guessing games regarding what the insurance company will or will not cover, there are no surprises when an insurance company rejects payment for previously approved services (often on the basis of "technicalities" and limitations of which the client had no awareness), and there are no deductibles
- assures that therapist time will be focused on therapy, research and planning rather than excess paperwork, providing greater focus on client needs
- reduces potential future problems in relation to other benefits (e.g., acquiring life insurance after an episode of depression that has resolved)
Knowing that some will feel compelled to use insurance, I made a compromise to participate in a limited number of insurance panels. Currently, I am a Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee provider and a federal Medicare provider, my region in which I’m accredited being the southeast. For those who wish to see me and want to submit information to insurance companies other than BCBS or federal Medicare for possible reimbursement, I will be more than happy to provide a superbill that they can turn in to their insurance carrier on their own behalf.
Fees
Most people who seek counseling come in once weekly for a therapeutic hour (45 minutes), but needs vary depending on "where" a person is in his/her therapy. Charges are as follows:
- Initial Intake: $200 (length varies depending on circumstances)
- Brief consultation: $70 (20-25 minutes)
- Standard session: $125 (45-50 minutes) Full hour session $160 (60 minutes)
- Extended session: $200 (75 minutes)
- Double Session: $240 (110 minutes)
Payment is expected at the time services are rendered, and is addressed at the beginning of each session, in order to facilitate maximum focus on therapy for the remainder of the appointment time.