self pay THERAPY RATES

Advantages of Self-Pay Therapy 

1. Paying for psychotherapy out of pocket minimizes the exposure of your protected health information (PHI). Whenever you use insurance benefits to cover psychotherapy, the provider, albeit with your consent, has to release certain types of information to the insurance carrier in order to a) verify your eligibility for coverage, b) pre-authorize services (if applicable), and c) to process claims to obtain payment. As the result, the provider informs the insurance carrier of such personal matters as the nature of the issues you struggle with (presenting problem), psychiatric diagnosis, your treatment plan, and prognosis. In the event of Self-pay, your therapy remains completely private (with the exceptions to confidentiality such as in the event of persistent suicidal ideation, etc.). No reports of your treatment are shared with your insurance and all records remain with the therapist only.

2. Furthermore, the advantage of Self-Pay includes the fact that no records of therapy exist in the Medical Information Bureau.. MIB records of your therapy could potentially compromise your ability to get current or future life, health, disability, or long-term care insurance. Self-Pay, thus, involves no psychiatric diagnosis code. If, however, you were using your insurance benefits, you would have to be assigned a psychiatric diagnosis in order for the provider to justify the medical necessity for the services provided. Once such diagnosis code is recorded by the insurance, it becomes part of your health care record.

3. Since there are certain types of therapy that may not be covered by your insurance, such as relationship or couples therapy or group therapy, and certain modalities of therapy that might not be covered by your insurance, Self-Pay allows you to stay in control of your treatment. Self-pay allows you to also determine the length of your treatment based on your needs rather than on the basis of the allotted session benefits.