Billing
Why Doesn’t Mind Path Wellness Accept Insurance?
Mind Path Wellness does not accept insurance and chooses to not participate in reimbursement with insurance for the following reasons:
Rates can be lower than the standard rate for therapy/counseling (offered on a "sliding scale") because there is no time outside of the therapy appointment spent on coding, billing, or following up on payments from insurance companies. Therapists either use time that is otherwise unpaid to submit billing or they must hire and pay a billing service, which is an additional cost in private practice. This gets passed along to clients in the form of the fee/rate the therapist charges. Therapists who are paneled with insurance companies are also unable to offer sliding scale rates as insurer contracts prohibit them from that practice.
Counseling and therapy should be accessible financially and without stigma. A diagnosis informs treatment and can provide context to understand groupings of symptoms you may experience. However, a diagnosis is required by an insurance company for therapy to be covered as it helps the insurer judge whether to pay based on whether therapy is "medically necessary." (This means that if you seek therapy for personal growth, talking through an issue, challenge, or other situation and do not meet symptom criteria for a mental illness, the therapist should not be billing insurance and you would likely need to pay for services in full anyway.)
Therapy and counseling can be about growth for positive outcomes or as part of ongoing mental wellness and health. It doesn't have to just be that we seek counseling like a sick visit with a primary care provider. In fact, checking in from time to time with a therapist can be like seeing a primary care provider for a physical or the twice-yearly dental cleanings covered by most dental coverage plans. (Unfortunately, there are no annual or semi-annual mental health wellness checks authorized by insurance.)
Please see forms page for information about the Federal and Massachusetts laws that further outline billing procedures and require a Good Faith Estimate for care.
NOTE: Sometimes people pay for out-of-network care and later submit to their insurance company and request what is called a "super bill" from their therapy provider. This option is not available as Mind Path Wellness offers a sliding scale payment structure.
Supervision is offered at a sliding scale basis similarly to fees for therapy. Inquire about rates through scheduling an initial consultation appointment where we can explore what you seek in a supervisor and fit with styles and areas of expertise.