Fees And Insurance

We charge a fee for individual therapy and for appointments with our psychiatric residents regarding medication. There are no fees for the first appointment, group therapy, or outreach presentations.

Our standard fee for individual therapy is $60 for a 45-50 minute session. Fees for psychiatry appointments are also $60. Your portion of the payments is due at the time of the service.

Insurance may cover the fees. However, many insurance plans have “deductibles”—an amount that must be paid before the insurance starts to provide payments. There is a separate deductible period for each year, so for most insurance plans, the deductible amount applies again in January of a new year even if you have been receiving services and already met a previous deductible. They also have co-payments that the individual receiving services must pay. A further issue may be a “pre-existing condition” clause. For example, if a person has seen a health professional for a condition in a period before a new policy starts, the policy may not cover treatment for that condition for some time—often the two periods of time are 12 months each. Moreover, many policies provide different benefits depending on if you see a professional in a network they have established or not in the network, with different numbers of sessions covered and different co-payments. It is very complicated!

It is very important that you learn about your insurance policy to understand how it actually works. You can get information from brochures the company provides and by calling the number on your insurance card for mental health services. When you know what benefits you have, you can make a more informed decision about where to get services—for example, from the Counseling Center or from a private practitioner or other agency. Although there are also other considerations besides the financial ones, the issue of affordability is realistic.

For students with the Student Health Insurance plan through UC, your mental health benefit when you are seen at the Counseling Center covers 30 sessions a year for all treatment (therapy, medication visits, psychological assessment). An initial deductible is waived by the insurance company for this setting (and UHS). The insurance covers $48 per session, that we will bill them for on your behalf, with your permission. Students’ co-pay is the remainder of the fee-- $12 for each visit.

For students with other insurance, plans vary widely. You will not know for sure what your benefits are until you read the plan’s materials and call the insurance company. Your plan may distinguish services within a network of providers who have an arrangement with them and those outside of the network. The Counseling Center is not in any networks outside of the Student Health Insurance. Therefore, it may cost you less to see a mental health professional through your insurance plan. For example, your insurance may expect you to pay $500 as a deductible before they pay anything if you see us at the Counseling Center; but they may have no deductible if you see one of the professionals in their network. Your co-pay if you see us may be 50%--or $30 each session thereafter, but only $10 if you are seen in network.

For students without insurance or who have great difficulty affording the terms of their insurance coverage, we offer a sliding fee scale. We will try to accommodate your circumstances within our own constraints to cover our costs as well. Therefore, we ask that people think carefully about what they can afford and how they can juggle their other expenditures for a period of time to make therapy a priority in their budget.

When you come to the Counseling Center for your first appointment, we give you a brief version of this information before your actual interview. We also request your insurance card to make a copy so we can contact your plan as well to understand your coverage. At the end of the interview, when you may have a better idea of what talking with a therapist may be like, we go over fee arrangements and have you sign a fee agreement. This agreement takes into account as best we can at the time what your insurance coverage is.

If you have questions about how we handle the monetary aspect of our services, you can contact the Director at 556-0648. If you have questions about the Student Health Insurance, you can check online at www.uc.edu/uhs/studenthealthinsurance or call the insurance office at 556-6868. If you have other coverage, you can call the number on your insurance card for mental health benefits or the insurance office at the place of employment of the insured person (for example, your parent if the insurance is through his or her employment). Always be sure to specify that you are calling about mental health benefits, as the terms and the deductible may be different from those for medical concerns.

Health Insurance Worksheet