Fees for Services
Trinity Family Counseling Center is a private pay practice. Therefore, your fee for services is payable by cash, check, credit card, HSA, or FSA card at the time of service.
We do offer a SLIDING SCALE for our services that is based on GROSS HOUSEHOLD INCOME. The sliding scale is available to those clients for whom our full fee would present a financial hardship. Proof of income is required
We do offer a SLIDING SCALE for our services that is based on GROSS HOUSEHOLD INCOME. The sliding scale is available to those clients for whom our full fee would present a financial hardship. Proof of income is required
Questions About Insurance
The counselors at Trinity Family Counseling Center are not paneled with any insurance companies. We would like our potential clients to understand our reasons for this policy.
First, in order for your insurance to pay for your therapy, you would need to be given a mental health diagnosis. Insurance companies operate on the medical model, and they require a diagnosis code to process a claim. Not everyone who comes in for counseling services has a mental health disorder. At Trinity, we are more interested in helping you solve your problem, address your issue, or focus on helping your relationship. We do not want to give anyone a mental health diagnosis just to be reimbursed. That is just not the way we like to work, and frankly, it feels unethical to us.
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Second, the insurance company will often dictate the number of sessions you qualify for based on your diagnosis. Additionally, depending on the insurance company, the counselor is often asked to report your progress every 5 to 10 sessions to verify that you still need to continue counseling services. At Trinity, we believe how well the therapy is going should be determined by your counselor and you—NOT your insurance provider.
Third, you and your counselor would have no control or knowledge over what your insurance company does with the information they receive, or who has access to that information. There is a real and substantial risk that comes with submitting a medical claim identifying a mental health diagnosis for reimbursement. A mental health diagnosis may become a part of your permanent medical record in a national providers database. The risk this poses include threats to your confidentiality, your privacy, or to your eligibility to obtain health or life insurance in the future.
Lastly, most insurance companies will not pay for relationship counseling at all. They might cover couple or family therapy as long as one person in the family is diagnosed with a mental health disorder. At Trinity, we find it to be unethical to diagnose one person with a disorder, just to receive insurance reimbursement. Also, a diagnosis of one person in the relationship runs the risk of identifying that person as “the problem,” creating an imbalance in the relationship dynamics making our work together more challenging.
Third, you and your counselor would have no control or knowledge over what your insurance company does with the information they receive, or who has access to that information. There is a real and substantial risk that comes with submitting a medical claim identifying a mental health diagnosis for reimbursement. A mental health diagnosis may become a part of your permanent medical record in a national providers database. The risk this poses include threats to your confidentiality, your privacy, or to your eligibility to obtain health or life insurance in the future.
Lastly, most insurance companies will not pay for relationship counseling at all. They might cover couple or family therapy as long as one person in the family is diagnosed with a mental health disorder. At Trinity, we find it to be unethical to diagnose one person with a disorder, just to receive insurance reimbursement. Also, a diagnosis of one person in the relationship runs the risk of identifying that person as “the problem,” creating an imbalance in the relationship dynamics making our work together more challenging.
Superbill for Insurance Reimbursement
Some of our clients have had success submitting a Superbill to their insurance carrier, which is a statement of our services rendered and the fee you have paid for those services. You would still pay us our fee at the time of service, and then submit the Superbill to your insurance company for reimbursement directly back to you. Keep in mind, that the Superbill does have a column for a diagnosis code, and that may be required by your insurance company. IF you should decide that you would like to submit a Superbill—and your insurance company requires a diagnosis code—we would discuss that diagnosis together before preparing the Superbill for submission to your insurance company.
At the time of each client’s initial phone consultation, our fees for services will be discussed in detail. Upon scheduling a first session with a counselor, each client will receive a Financial Agreement for Counseling Services and a Good Faith Estimate for Services offered.