Even though you
might be suffering what could be diagnosed as depression, anxiety, grief, or adjustment or stress disorder, trying to use your insurance
for personal growth work might be interpreted as insurance fraud. This would have serious legal ramifications
for you.
I am not on any
insurance panels, and your insurance company will likely not recognize your coaching work with me as psychotherapy
covered by your plan.
Assuming that your
plan is unusually liberal and will consider reimbursement for your work with me, to have a claim accepted, you must be
given a mental illness diagnosis. Such a diagnosis becomes part of your health and legal record, and will then follow
you for the rest of your life. Having retired from professional counseling, I am not currently licensed to diagnose or provide
a superbill for reimbursement of your expenses. You would have to see a psychologist or mental health counselor, be
diagnosed with a mental illness, and have your provider specify coaching with me as a third party specialist as part
of your treatment plan.
The most likely
mental illness diagnoses that are typical for clients seeking to use coaching as an alternative to psychotherapy range
from depression, anxiety, panic disorder, social phobia, acute stress disorder, and adjustment disorder.
When an insurance
company gets involved, it hampers working with freedom, privacy, and choice, as the coaching model doesn't fit their
more limited and pathology-focused standard of care timeframes. HMOs want clinicians to see clients for less time, not
more. This can be a problem for reimbursement, since there are no codes that allow tele-coaching or email support, and insurance
companies are not usually good about handling things that are out of the ordinary for them.
The insurance companies
share information with all sorts of other businesses -- there is no such thing as true privacy and confidentiality when you're
on record with an insurance company. At the least, if you were in a car accident that required medical care, lawyers
and their assistants for both sides will see your health insurance files in which your mental illness diagnosis will be featured.
Having such diagnosis in your record may give the opposing side cause to deny or reduce settlements. When there
is a mental illness diagnosis in your background, it is used as an excuse to say you are unstable or erratic and therefore fully
or partially at fault, exaggerating distress, or that mental and emotional suffering was due to your prior condition
rather than the accident. Outrageous, but true.
More and more insurance
companies are outsourcing their claims processing, with many going India and other foreign countries. In addition
to your mental illness history then being circulated around the world, submitting a claim contributes to the harmful business
practices of these large corporations who want to collect as much in premiums as possible, pay workers as low a wage as possible,
and payout reimbursements and settlements as infrequently as possible, while preventing employment in the US.
In some cases your
employer, through an EAP, will have access to your chart/file. A mental illness diagnosis given for the purpose
of insurance payments may also serve to discriminate against you when it comes time for promotion and other employment advantages.
If / when your
insurance claim is denied you are still responsible for the bill. In fact, since I do not submit insurance claims, and
you will have already paid me, you will have wasted your time in submitting your claims for no benefit.
You'll likely have
a high out of pocket co-pay anyway, especially if you haven't met your deductible.
When viewed from
this perspective, keeping your insurance company out of your sessions is a much smarter move.
