Full Circle Counseling is currently reviewing the decision to accept insurance.
Managed care plans involve direct clinical management by the plan’s “case managers”. If you access therapists through your managed care plan, your therapist likely will be required to disclose a significant amount of personal information related to your case. This information may be used by the managed care company to determine benefits, which are allocated at their own discretion. We feel strongly, this impacts your right to confidentiality, and it is possible that your information will be stored in a computer system, which could be accessed by any number of people.
Lack of confidentiality may adversely affect your minor children who are clients as well. Should they ever desire to apply for certain jobs or the military, the information in their insurance files could be accessed. It should be noted that thisis especially true with regard to Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, which has been associated with lost employment and denial of admission to military service.
Due to the direct care management by managed care companies and their desire to keep costs at a minimum, getting therapy sessions authorized has become cumbersome and time consuming. Every plan has different requirements and standards for authorization. Usually they require a number of hours a week of paperwork and phone calls by the therapist in order to get authorizations. Some will even deny participants therapy while approving medications.
Most insurance plans and managed care organizations have lists of professionals who are “in the plan”. However, this necessitates your seeing professionals who are on the plan and who have availability to insured/managed care clients. They may have no particular expertise with the issues you present to treatment.
Most insurers do not cover marriage counseling or family counseling unless they are part of the treatment plan for a serious mental disorder or drug/alcohol problem. However, many times family involvement may be critical to the success of treatment. Billing a session as “individual” when it actually involved other family members is considered insurance fraud.
We hope this has explained some of the reasons for our policy of not accepting insurance directly at this time. We are happy to help you obtain reimbursement from your insurer by providing you with receipts or Health Insurance Claim Forms. We appreciate your understanding.
Full Circle Counseling
Please click on the link for an interesting article regarding insurance/therapy: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1272/is_2708_132/ai_n6019807
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