Rates, Hours & Info

There’s a lot of nitty-gritty below. I have sections for Rates, Payment, Out-of-Network Provider (re insurance use), Hours, Medicare Opt-Out, and Rates Transparency and Good Faith Estimate.

Some of this information - and other - can be seen on my FAQ page.

Rates

My standard sessions are 60 minutes in length. Extended sessions are 90 minutes long. All sessions start and end on the hour or half hour. All couple sessions are 90 minutes.

• standard session - $155

• extended session - $235

• couple session - $235

• free, no-obligation 20 minute consultation - $0

Details on late cancellation fees and other fees can be seen in my Rates Policy in my consent package. If you have questions, please contact me by clicking below for a secure message form.

Or if you’d like a little more info for now, visit my About or FAQ pages and then come back here.

Payment

I accept major credit cards as payment types. Check with your plans for HSA or FSA if you have questions about them.

I use a secure payment system that sends you a link for entering your card information. I never see your full card data.

Payment is due at the time of service.

Out of Network Provider

I do not accept insurance. I am a private- or self-pay practitioner. I am considered out of network for all insurance panels.

Thankfully(!), stigma around humans seeking psychotherapy is waning. (Being a human in good relationship with self and other humans is hard - and takes hard work!)

However, insurance companies have not (yet!) adjusted to our human perspective in that they still consider psychotherapy as a tool for illness and medical necessity and not as a tool for mental, emotional, and relational well-being. To be sure, there are plenty of important reasons for diagnosing in the medical model! It guides a path of treatment, for example - broken arm, ear infection, heart condition, etc.

So while insurance is wonderful for those medically necessary things we all need regularly and from time to time, there is not yet a model for emotionally and relationally necessary coverage.

And until that happens and when there is reimbursement parity to providers, I choose to be an out of network provider so that our work is not bound by insurance requirements and limitations that consider only illness and medical necessity.

Keep reading for my position on providing superbills for (possible) reimbursement for individual therapy but not for couple therapy. (A superbill is essentially a list of services provided which you provide to your insurance provider. It includes dates of service, diagnosis, cost of service, provider information, etc.)

INDIVIDUALS: You do have the option of submitting to your insurance company for my out of network services. At your request at the start of services I can provide you with a superbill for you to submit for possible reimbursement. You are responsible for contacting your provider to verify your coverage. (Please NOTE that coverage does not always mean covered.)

My licensing board requires that I assess for and provide a diagnosis for your file for our work together and in creating an appropriate treatment plan. This diagnosis remains ‘for our eyes only’ UNLESS you choose to submit a superbill to your insurance company for reimbursement.

Should you choose to submit a superbill to your insurance company, your diagnosis becomes part of your permanent medical record and follows you throughout your lifetime. This can get sticky, right? Should it help inform at times? Maybe. Should it be an obstacle in your life? No.

Additionally, know that when involving an insurance company for reimbursement, they have the right to request your full treatment records at any time, including after our services have ended.

Also, if you plan to submit a superbill, the Good Faith Estimate does not apply to you.

COUPLES: Reimbursement by your insurance company for couple therapy may not be an option …

As I wrote above, relationship and emotional wellness is not considered medically necessary. My argument to this is that the state or condition of our relationship absolutely does affect our individual emotional wellness! (I know you know this too! You totally know how crappy you feel when your relationship isn’t working so well. If asked about our day, we might say, “It sucks,” and we really mean, “I feel so completely sad and sucky inside.”)

However, the medical model view of diagnosing is that a diagnosis is of and for only one person - i.e., what are the symptoms within or of that (one) person that are making life less than ok for said person?

So, all of that is to say, medically necessary is not typically including what is happening between one person and another person - the in-between is the relationship.

As such, your insurance plan likely does not reimburse for couple therapy.

What they may mean when they say reimbursement is possible is for both of you being present in a session - yet there can be only one diagnosis. So, again, see just above, the medical model view of diagnosing is of and for only one person. So, this would not be considered couple therapy; it would be individual therapy with partner present.

So my providing a superbill for couple therapy is murky and likely resides in unethical territory for me. As such, I do not offer superbills for the practice of couple therapy.

And we absolutely need insurance companies to catch up and humanize their practices and offer reimbursement for emotionally and relationally necessary coverage - i.e., being human and having ‘the human condition’ and being wired to be in relationship with other humans.

Ok, I’m off my ‘insurance-companies-need-to-reimburse-for-the-actual-relational-stuff’ soapbox now. I wanted you to know what I understand at this time. Thanks for reading. Questions are welcome.

Hours

Final sessions start at 5 PM.

Tues - 10 AM - 5 PM

Wed - 10:00 AM -5 PM

Thurs - 10 AM - 5 PM

Medicare Opt-Out

I have chosen to opt out of being a Medicare provider. Effective January 1, 2024, my licensure (MFT - marriage & family therapy) was invited to begin billing Medicare independently. The Medicare ‘assumption’ is that providers are ‘in’ unless they opt out. I have opted out, and, as such, am not a Medicare provider.

If you’re curious about this new rule for marriage & family therapists, click here (you will be taken to a CMS.gov page).

I include a form that addresses my having opted out in my intake and consent package.

Rates Transparency & Good Faith Estimate

You Got This Therapy provides transparency in billing practices with rates information on this page and in our initial consultation call.

In addition, under the law, health care providers are required to give clients who don’t have insurance or who are not using insurance an estimate of the bill for medical items and services. Psychotherapy for mental and emotional health care is included under the medical umbrella.

This estimate of the bill is called a Good Faith Estimate or GFE. You can read more about it on my Good Faith Estimate page.