Mental Health Insurance Coverage
Navigate mental health insurance benefits and maximize your coverage.
Navigating mental health insurance can feel overwhelming, but understanding your coverage is essential for accessing affordable care. Thanks to mental health parity laws, insurance companies are required to cover mental health services similarly to medical/surgical services—though navigating the specifics can still be complex.
This resource hub brings together everything you need to understand your mental health insurance benefits, verify coverage, maximize reimbursement, and find platforms that accept insurance.
Essential Resources
Complete Insurance Guide
Comprehensive guide to mental health insurance coverage, verifying benefits, and maximizing reimbursement.
Insurance Checker Tool
Interactive tool to find therapy platforms that accept your insurance plan.
Platforms Accepting Insurance
Compare therapy platforms that work with insurance companies for affordable care.
Budget Finder Tool
Find affordable therapy options within your budget, including insurance-based and self-pay platforms.
Therapy Costs & Pricing
Understand therapy costs, payment options, and financial assistance programs for mental health care.
Telehealth Insurance Coverage
How insurance coverage works for online therapy and virtual mental health services.
Understanding Your Mental Health Benefits
Key insurance terms you need to know when navigating mental health coverage:
Deductible
Amount you pay out-of-pocket before insurance starts covering services. Many plans have separate medical and mental health deductibles.
Copay
Fixed amount you pay per session (e.g., $30 copay per therapy session). Copays don't count toward your deductible.
Coinsurance
Percentage of the session cost you pay after meeting your deductible (e.g., 20% coinsurance means you pay 20%, insurance pays 80%).
Out-of-Pocket Maximum
Most you'll pay per year for covered services. After hitting this limit, insurance covers 100% of covered services.
In-Network
Providers with contracts with your insurance company. Lower out-of-pocket costs, typically just a copay.
Out-of-Network
Providers without contracts with your insurer. Higher costs initially, but you may be reimbursed for a portion of the fee.
How to Verify Your Coverage
Questions to Ask Your Insurance Company:
- • "Does my plan cover outpatient mental health services?"
- • "What is my copay/coinsurance for therapy sessions?"
- • "Do I need to meet my deductible before coverage begins?"
- • "How many therapy sessions are covered per year?"
- • "Do I need a referral or prior authorization?"
- • "Is teletherapy/online therapy covered the same as in-person?"
- • "Does my plan cover out-of-network providers, and what's the reimbursement rate?"
- • "Are there specific diagnosis codes required for coverage?"
Pro tip: Call the member services number on the back of your insurance card. Request written confirmation of your mental health benefits via email for your records.
Insurance Blog Articles
We're building a comprehensive library of insurance-related articles. Future posts will cover topics like:
- • How to fight an insurance denial for mental health services
- • Out-of-network reimbursement: step-by-step guide
- • Mental health parity laws: what you need to know
- • Using your HSA/FSA for therapy
- • Insurance coverage for couples and family therapy
- • What to do when your therapist doesn't take insurance
In the meantime, explore our existing insurance resources above, or browse related tags below.