Why Choose Private Pay…

Insurance: Not always the answer

When we need a primary care physician, we go to our insurance webpage and search the doctors that will accept our insurance plan. When we need physical therapy or an outpatient procedure done we do the same. After all, I pay an obscene amount every month to cover myself and my family for these needs to be taken care of. If I’m paying for it, I am going to use it, right? So, why is it that some private practice therapists choose not to take insurance? Why do private practice therapists offer out of pocket pricing? Obviously, its because they charge more then insurance would pay, right? Truth be told, some private practice therapists do get paid more for out of pocket prices than insurance prices. However, Lifescape Integrative Therapy, LLC. actually charges about the same, and in some cases less, than most insurance reimbursement rates. This comes from the belief that affordable mental health care needs to be available to all who seek it. It also comes from a strong belief that privacy is a key element in mental health care.

To bill insurance, every authorization comes with the question of “what is the diagnostic code?” Followed by “what is your justification for this level of treatment?” These questions don’t just come one time. In fact, they come multiple times while receiving services. And when insurance decides it’s no longer medically necessary they can choose to stop authorizing payments. While a cancer doctor is, and should be, comfortable discussing your medical diagnosis and how the cancer cells have evolved over time determining the need for radiation, imagine how that may impact the privacy of someone seeking mental health treatment. Imagine how that could impact progress if after a few weeks of managing your symptoms and starting to feel stable, with no warning you are now cut from services because a group of people who haven’t met you said “if they have a few good weeks, they can probably continue to do just well on their own.”

You come into therapy looking for a safe and confidential place to discuss what is on your mind. You do so with the understanding that in talking about some of your deepest secrets you will better be able to process them and move on. And then, as someone charging your insurance, much of this needs to go back to your insurance company and put on a medical record. Should there ever be a question of services provided, or if the services are still necessary, insurance now also can have rights to your chart with treatment plans and progress notes attached. Why? Because while you may be paying the co-pay, insurance is who is covering the majority of the service. That consent you signed to bill insurance when you first walked through the door of your practitioners office gave consent to your medical and mental health chart. Diagnostics that follow you in a medical chart wherever you go.

Some people are comfortable with this, but many are not. Yes, financially going through insurance “everyone wins.” The problem is, when it comes to your mental health, in long run the person receiving services does not win. Their confidential information has now been given to one other entity, the insurance company. And then, that that diagnosis of alcohol use disorder, depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder etcetera are now logged into your insurance to be monitored and followed. As a medical doctor, it would be beneficial for them to know you are in remission from colon cancer as of 2019. However, as a mental health provider who is not prescribing medication, I find little reason that your insurance company needs to know your diagnoses, goals for treatment or what was discussed in each individual session.

Why does Lifescape Integrative Therapy, LLC. offer reasonable private pay options? In short, because your privacy is of the upmost importance to us. We understand that you came into counseling seeking someone you can trust to process things that may be really difficult for you to talk about. You deserve for those things to remain private at all cost. The goal is to guide you to becoming a healthy happier version of yourself, in confidence.

Written By:

Dena Paniccia, Licensed Clinical Social Worker- Qualified Supervisor 14217, Certified First Responder Counselor, Certified Recovery Residence Administrator, Certified Clinical Anxiety Treatment Provider, Certified Telemental Health Provider 

Therapist - Lifescape Integrative Therapy, LLC.