Insurance-Based Services Designed for Couples

As a group of Marriage and Family Therapists, the foundation of our training has been centered around supporting the most influential relationships that many of us will ever have - the relationships with our parents/siblings and the relationship with our spouse. As humanistic providers, we know that our lived experience (often equal to or greater than our genetic makeup) is what shapes us as human beings, and the interactions that we have with those closest to us are where we see our outcomes being shaped in everything from our physical fitness and physiological health to our beliefs, values, creativity, and overall mental health. While we, as clinically trained professionals, have long-respected the importance of healthy relationships, gaining insurance coverage for these services has historically posed an added challenge for clients to receive authorization for counseling services as a covered medical expense. However, we are proud to announce that our practice is now one of the few LMFT-owned and LMFT-operated groups billing services through insurance. Here's what you need to know.

A blue shield with a hand symbol floats gracefully against a soft light pink background, symbolizing protection and security.

• Do all carriers allow couples counseling to be billed through insurance? Not all carriers cover relationship counseling prior to a legal marriage, but most carriers approve coverage for married couples seeking counseling.

• Do you accept all insurances at NTXCFT? Currently we are credentialed with BCBS, Aetna and UHC, but can refer out to other trusted providers who may work with other insurances.

• What is different about your private pay services and services that are billed through insurance? While much is the same about the services you are eligible to receive whether paying privately or with use of insurance, some stipulations do apply to services that are governed by the insurance company. For instance, the amount of time allotted for each session and the frequency of services that can be covered may vary. Couples who prefer extended sessions due to the complexity of their conflicts or the acuity of a recent issue aren't able to made adjustments to the amount of time spent with the provider. In fact, although we do not agree with insurance-based policies which limit reimbursable time at only 38 minutes per session, it is a time-specifier that we are unable to negotiate on our clients' behalf. We do overcome this by extending sessions to around 50 minutes for each couple, however we are not able to provide a more tailored service that offers the option of 80-minute sessions to couples who could benefit from making progress at a faster pace.

• Why we believe other providers who specialize in treating couples and families remain private pay and why it is important to us to offer this option to our clients. As mentioned above, the reimbursement and time-allotment for couple and family services billed through insurance is diminished from even the billable amount and time-restraints placed on the provider by the insurance company. Essentially, to provide services for couples and families through insurance, we willingly accept that we are going to be limited in the amount of time we can spend with our clients and that the coverage for these types of services will be less, which is what we believe deters many specialized practices from onboarding as a group or individual provider with insurance companies. After recent changes to our economy coupled with a growing commitment to help ease the burden of the mental health needs in our community, availability and affordability became two of our top priorities at NTXCFT.

It's not always an easy choice whether to initiate counseling and recognizably comes with a cost and commitment that can be difficult to overcome which is why we work hard at making our services fit across the broader needs of the community by direct insurance reimbursement, evening availability, and by eliminating location-related barriers through delivery of telehealth services. We'd love to learn more about how we can support your therapeutic goals individually, together as a couple, or with the entire family unit. Your health is a compilation of daily habits with the people you see most, let us help find the rhythm that brings you and your relationships in-sync with your health.