Both individual and Couples Therapy sessions are billed at $200 for a 50-minute session.
Sessions are paid for at NEST, LLC via credit card using the Ivy Pay system. Ivy Pay is a credit card system that was tailor-made for psychotherapists. It works with credit, debit, HSA and FSA cards. It’s HIPAA-secure, keeps our therapy confidential, and makes payment easy for you and me. All I need is your mobile number which we can take care of in our first session together. Payment is made at the time of service.
NEST, LLC is no longer in-network with any insurance carriers. I understand that the use of insurance makes psychotherapy more accessible for many folx, but it often creates more problems than it solves.
There are a number of reasons why I no longer provide in-network insurance services:
- All insurance companies require a diagnosis and evidence that services are a “medical necessity.” In other words, psychotherapists are required to prove that there is something wrong with you. I do not view clients in this way – I see you as a whole person, albeit with some life challenges, in need of intelligent support, not pathologizing diagnoses.
- Insurance companies have the financial upper hand and can mandate how the therapeutic process unfolds. They often will not reimburse for couples therapy, sex therapy, and other kinds of therapies that most therapists have in their therapeutic toolbox. It’s very hard to do the work I do when I’m working around a broken and inadequate insurance system.
- Most reimbursement rates from insurance companies are less than 60% of my out of pocket fee. Working with insurance carriers means therapists working double the hours a week, risking our own wellbeing, and being less able to provide the high-quality therapeutic services I want to provide to my clients.
- In order to reconcile insurance claims, track payments and liaise with insurance carriers, I have to pay for support services. Insurance carriers make no additional funding available to support this necessity.
- Insurance companies can, and often do, retroactively deny a claim and take money back that they have already paid. This is known as a “clawback.” Clawbacks have nothing to do with the quality of the clinical services provided. It more often is related to administrative issues, like whether clinical notes are signed on the day that services were provided, whether it was written on time, and whether the carrier deems it “medically necessary.” As a result, therapists are often placed at financial risk and experience additional stress from dealing with the insurance companies.
Please check with your insurance carrier in the event that they reimburse for out-of-network providers. Services may be covered by an employee benefit plan.
Please note that NEST, LLC does not file claims on your behalf for out-of-network insurance companies and will expect payment for services to be made at the time of each appointment. However, NEST, LLC can provide you with a “superbill” which can be submitted to your insurance company for reimbursement directly to you.
