Fees, Insurance and Reimbursement

Counseling: A High Return On Investment

Congratulations on your decision to participate in counseling. Counseling is an ascendant-bars-graphic_318-49919 important investment in your wellbeing: short and long term. Your determination to improve yourself through regular counseling visits will have ripple effects throughout your circle of relationships: family, friends and co-workers, with your community, and so on.

As important as these relationships are, I urge you to look at the costs of counseling as you would consider any other long term purchase which brings high value to your life.

When you buy a car, for instance, you expect that you will make payments over time. The value of having safe, comfortable, reliable transportation makes you feel good when you sit behind the wheel. The value of this feeling is greater than the challenge of budgeting for those monthly payments, insurance, maintenance and fuel.

Counseling is similar – though much less expensive than new car! – it is an investment that is well worth the cost and priority of finding a place in your budget. Just like any other purchase or investment, you make a determination to put counseling in your budget because your health and wellbeing, your relationships with spouse, children, family, co-workers, are worth it.

You make a determination to put counseling in your budget because your health and wellbeing, your relationships with spouse, children, family, co-workers are worth it.

Indeed, if your relationships with co-workers and customers improved as a result of the work you do in counseling, you could say that it will pay dividends.

Research of the top businesses indicates that engagement and emotional intelligence really does pay dividends. Those companies whose culture and workforce score high in those areas have a significant gain in the rise of their stock over those companies that score lower (Bunting, 2017).

But usually, we don’t rate the value of counseling in dollars and cents, we rate it by quality of life. Quality of life is most often a factor of the quality of our relationships.

Counseling is Preventative Medicine

However, a case can also be made that of all the preventative “medicine” you can ascribe to, counseling is a high impact intervention. Because stress has been identified as a primary source in illness, depression as the primary cause of days lost from work, along with substance abuse (frequently used to try and manage stress and depression), workers and employers lose billions of dollars in the global economy every year.

Intervening early to relieve stress, anxiety, depression and substance abuse helps to reduce the impact of illness on you and your family, reduces your health costs, and increases your well being.

Intervening in these problems before they impact us physically, through heart disease, back pain, gastrointestinal or immune disorders contributes not only to the “bottom line” of companies through health care and absentee savings, but, most importantly helps to reduce the impact of illness on you and your family, reduces your health costs, and increases your well being.

By taking steps like healing past traumas, dealing with anxiety and depression by scheduling regular counseling sessions, quarterly mind-health “tune-up” sessions, or learning how to develop a mindfulness practice, helps to prevent illness.

Health Begins in the Mind

happy line When looked at through this lens, counseling – either crisis or wellbeing oriented – has a very good return on investment (ROI): physically and financially, as well as mentally, emotionally, and, if you will, spiritually.

Fees, Insurance, and Reimbursement

I am a fee for service provider. Check with your insurance company to confirm your pen-and-paper coverage for Out of Network providers. Because I am a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC), my services are recognized by many insurance plans. My fees are typically within the covered range (“UCR”) of most insurance companies.

My services are provided directly to you and your payment is made directly to me. If you’re considering filing with your insurance company for reimbursement, I’ll provide you with the information you need.

As a way to make counseling affordable, I offer EasyPay no-interest payment plans to spread the cost over time. We will work to shape the plan to match your individual needs and resources. I want to see you get the support for your healing and well-being that you need.

Before you make your decision, please consider these factors related to insurance:

Confidentiality: All insurance companies require some information about the reason for psychological treatment in order to process your claim. In addition, managed care plans sometimes require detailed information about why you’re seeking help, and a diagnosis, as well as your history, symptoms, family life, work life, your level of functioning, and so on. The information is entered into increasingly large information systems, that as we know, could be subject to hacking.
Control of Treatment: Managed care companies use the information to decide if treatment is medically necessary; what kind of therapy is approved; and how long it should continue. Most times, the insurance company employees who make these decisions have limited training — and of course have never met with you.
Deductibles: Many of today’s insurance plans have high deductibles. By the time you are through a usual course of therapy, you may not even have satisfied the deductible amount. So, you will end up with something more like a fee-for-service plan anyway. Check to see if your insurance company will allow my fees with go toward satisfying your deductible for mental health services.
Health Spending Accounts: We accept HSA/FSA health spending accounts as well as Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Discover, Debit Cards, PayPal, Checks and Cash.

“Most times, the insurance company employees who make these decisions have limited training — and of course have never met with you.”

Please feel free to contact me about questions or concerns you have about fees and insurance. I will be happy to discuss payment options, including payment plans, package fees for multiple visits, or other arrangements with you. My goal is to find an arrangement that works for both of us and gets you the high quality services you seek.

Thank you for choosing DayQuest Life Counseling and Healthy-Mind Services. I look forward to providing excellent, caring services for you.