Information on insurance, payments, and cost of therapy:

If I don’t take your insurance, don’t worry. You have out of network benefits! Read on to find out more about that.

I currently take Optum (Connecticare, United Health or United Behavioral Health, Oxford, etc…) and Aetna. For people who have an insurance I am not in-network with (Cigna, Anthem), payment is simple. You pay our agreed upon rate out of pocket and I submit claims direct to your insurance. They will reimburse you whatever their out of network rate might be.

If you’d rather submit claims yourself, I can supply you with “superbills” for that purpose.

I do not take any form of medicaid or medicare, therefore if you have medicaid or medicare I’m not able to serve you at this time.

Is this going to cost a fortune (with or without insurance)?

I will start by saying that I work by certain guidelines and ethics, one of those being that therapy has a beginning, middle, and an end. When we meet, we will begin to discuss how many sessions might be necessary for effective change and continue to assess this as we go. This means that I do not typically plan on seeing clients for more than 3 to 6 months. So, as you can see, the cost to you is limited right from the beginning.

A common length of treatment is 12 weekly sessions (though this can vary), My current full rate is $140 (this can be negotiable) for an hour of therapy. That means that for one month you’ll pay about $560 (if you come every other week, it’ll be half this). Like I said earlier, you may be able to get some of this cost back from your insurance. 12 sessions, for 3 months, will cost about $1,680 or less, minus your out of network reimbursement.

Why stop taking insurance?

As a licensed professional it is frustrating to be limited by the reimbursement rates and rules of insurance companies. If I’m receiving my preferred rate from clients, I can see less clients and focus more on each individual.

Some drawbacks of insurance - they can ask for your records, and they may refuse payment based on diagnosis. They can limit the number of visits allowed. Insurance can be very confusing and limiting. Most do not pay a fair rate compared to the average rates of therapists nationwide.

By paying out of pocket you can potentially keep your privacy and, in my experience, are more invested and more likely to attend sessions and do the work. Also, I’d like to provide services on my terms without having to jump through the flaming hoops of insurance, without the threat of non-payment for arbitrary reasons. Being out of network allows me to see any client without the constraints of a third party’s rules. It’s the reason many of us go into private practice in the first place - a certain level of freedom to practice how we choose while still following the ethics and values of our field.