Submitting Insurance Claims for Counseling

Shedding some light on insurance reimbursement

There are plenty of mental health professionals, like me, who aren’t “paneled” with insurance, meaning we don’t contract with health insurance companies directly. This means insurance won’t pay us directly for our counseling sessions together. But there may be ways to get your insurance to reimburse you for our sessions together – these are called “Out-Of-Network” or OON claims.

Please keep in mind that if you choose to submit out-of-network claims for psychotherapy, this will require more diagnostic information be supplied to the insurance companies, meaning that I need to decide on a mental health diagnosis for you. We will want to have a discussion about whether you are diagnosable and whether you want to share that information with your insurance company – some people don’t want their insurance company to have information about their mental wellness.

Your options for submitting to insurance

First, use the worksheet I can supply to help determine if your insurance will reimburse you for mental health counseling. Then submit your claims to your insurance company following whatever process they have defined for you.

Note: No matter which method you use, if you opt to make out-of-network claims, we take no responsibility for pursuing that claim or for your insurance company’s ability to reimburse you – OON claims are entirely between the client and the insurance company.

Additionally, insurance will generally not cover the cost of career counseling unless it is secondary and related to a diagnosable mental health condition.