Will you use insurance or not?
Reaching the point that we decide we are ready to accept help is a tough time. Please don’t spin your wheels. Know if you are going through insurance or not.
Benefits of Not Using Insurance
- You won’t have to struggle to find out what is covered or not.
- You will get to freely decide who to see for therapy.
- There will be no mental health disorder diagnosis that will be on your permanent medical record.
- You will be able to decide with your therapist how long you will work together. As a cost saving measure many insurance policies cover only a certain number of sessions per year. Additionally, if you are not “mentally ill enough,” but still need to talk with a therapist your insurance might stop authorizing payment.
- You won’t have to pay full price until your insurance deductible is met.
- You won’t lose your therapist if or when they decide not to work with that insurance anymore. There would always be a contractual period so there would be some notice. A major problem is that if you are doing deep work that might last more than a few months, this is a real risk. Working with insurance takes many hours per week for a therapist and eventually many decide to quit doing that. Insurance companies also sometimes do, “claw backs,” which means they paid the therapist but then after the fact tell them that services are not authorized and so therapist has to pay the insurance company back.
What If Market Rates Are Too High to Pay?
If money is an issue, look for someone with a sliding fee scale. This means that you pay in relation to your income. In my practice, anyone who earns less than $65,000 annual gross income is eligible to get a sliding scale rate. http://wisewomantherapy/fees-for-services
For those who aren’t able to afford that, there’s Open Path Psychotherapy Collective. openpathcollective.org. Open Path is for those who need affordable therapy and have either no insurance coverage or insurance that is essentially useless due to deductibles or lack of therapists who are actually available in their area. Open Path maintains a profile listing site with therapists who will see clients for $30-$70 per session. I am happily one of those therapists with the collective.
If You Will Use Your Insurance:
- Locate your card and the member number, policy number, group number etc.
- There will be a website to look at. It will likely be very confusing, but hang in there.
- Call the toll-free number on your card. You will be guided through the prompts for the robot voice to tell you what’s up. This might answer your questions.
- Try to be patient as you attempt to get answers from a human. They will likely be able to tell you what your policy covers.
- Check to see if you have coverage for out-of-network providers. If you have a PPO they might reimburse you 60-80% of costs after you pay the therapist first. That will give you a lot more therapists to choose from.
- Know your deductible. This is the amount you have to spend on health care from your insurance before you get to use it.
- Know which therapists are approved by your insurance. There will likely be a list on the insurance website. Some of these providers will have no room for new clients and have waitlists but someone will be available.
Navigating the Therapist Profile Sites
Here are some of the most popular therapist profile sites.
Use the Filters to Narrow the Choices
Location: Do you want online or in person therapy? wisewomantherapy.com/services-online-therapy-for-women/
Therapist credentials and states licensed. Know that the therapist you want to work with is actually licensed to practice where you live. Our United States are very divided in this capacity. Rules are different and don’t assume reciprocity.
Insurance and fees: If you are using your insurance filter just for people who take that insurance. Likewise, some of the listing services have a category for sliding fee or an actual price listing you can select.
Who? If it is really important to you to work with a woman for example, most of the sites let you filter for that. Not all the sites do this however. You may need to select more specifically and use filters like, “women’s issues.” This may still leave you with some males who consider themselves experts in women’s issues. Bless and release.
What special issues? Nearly every therapist will work on issues like stress management or grief but if you have very specific things you need, definitely scroll all the way down in the specialty lists, which are often very long. And be aware that those of us who have worked in the field a long time might really have expertise in a very long list.
Work with an intern? Decide if you would work with someone who is not yet licensed but is doing an internship and receiving supervision from a licensed person. Rates are generally cheaper and it may be your only option depending on how busy therapists are in your area or who is 100% covered by your insurance.
Ethnicity It may be that working with someone of your same ethnicity could increase the level of understanding you feel.
Language If English isn’t your first language it really may help to work with someone who speaks your first language.
Sexual Orientation Depending upon what you want to work on, this might be a very relevant category to select for.
Faith Someone at least familiar with your faith or actively willing to work with you if you are atheist or agnostic might enhance your therapy experience.
About Me and My Practice
Wise Woman Therapy is Deb Dettman’s one woman show. As an LCSW with over 30 years of experience I’ve worked with thousands of women. I am fully licensed in Illinois and Washington State and am registered for telehealth for clients in Idaho and Florida. Specializing in recovery from everything: addiction, abuse trauma, toxic relationships, toxic workplaces, religious trauma, impact of homophobia and sexism and the list goes on and on. I provide online therapy for women in IL, ID, FL and WA State. I live in Chicago most of the year and provide Walk and Talk Therapy along the lakefront trail and in summer in Seattle for about a month along Alki or Green Lake.
Set up a free phone consultation if interested:
