Why Therapists Won’t Accept Insurance TikTok

With that in mind, Farah shared with us a few “call to action” items for insurance companies, the US government, and practitioners like herself:

FOR INSURANCE COMPANIES:

1. Pay clinicians more, what they are worth.

2. Don’t gate-keep therapy from folks whose conditions don’t meet your approved list of diagnoses.

3. Make the process to get on insurance panels (groups of healthcare providers that an insurance company will pay for services given to their customers) shorter, easier, and clearer.

4. Make the process to follow your guidelines for documentation clearer and easier.

5. Don’t claw back money from clinicians unless something illegal or unethical happened. (A “clawback” is when an insurance company, even months after claims have been paid out, requests records to review for medical necessity and literally go into your bank account and take the money back. You can read more about the clawback contractual provision here.)

6. Make the process to talk to representatives easier.

7. Let therapists talk to their colleagues about how much money they are making so they can negotiate better, because they aren’t legally allowed to share what their contract pays out.

FOR THE GOVERNMENT:

1. Step in and regulate application timelines.

2. Regulate what insurance companies can do to deny claims and claw back money.

3. Set policies that make mental health a clear and core part of healthcare.

4. Step in and regulate tech companies that are engaging in opaque and unethical business practices in the mental health field.

5. Consider student loan or tax benefits for therapists who are paneled and actively seeing clients with insurance payments. 

FOR THERAPISTS:

1. Get comfortable sharing information with your colleagues. Obviously, don’t violate your contracts or do anything unethical or illegal, but teach one another. 

2. Be open to consultation about getting paneled and billing. 

3. Keep having these conversations with your colleagues AND your elected representatives.