Psychotherapy is a priceless experience. Unlike vacations, dinners at restaurants, and other temporary pleasures, the gift of therapy provides healing, insight, and guidance that impacts every minute of a person's life thereafter; nevertheless, I understand the need of affordability and therefore it is my goal to provide a range of flexible options.  

     Understandably, many people who are just beginning therapy may prefer to utilize insurance (and/or out of necessity given the cost of rent in cities, especially NY!). It is important to recognize that in this day and age, insurance companies can intrude upon the confidentiality of treatment, require extensive paperwork, a diagnosis, and at times, may even place restrictions upon frequency and duration. Having said that, I am in-network with Aetna because I have found them to be a smooth, reliable company to work with (from a patient and provider perspective). I additionally offer an equitable fee structure for patients who would consider an out-of-pocket fee with the potential to utilize out-of-network benefits. This structure takes into account factors such as a patient's cost of living, financial stability, outstanding student loans, and commitment to weekly or bi-weekly attendance at an agreed-upon time. During our initial intake session, we can discuss the payment details. As a practice, we handle submitting initial out of network paperwork on your behalf so that you don't have to deal with the anxiety of submitting superbills to the insurance company. 

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 On Utilizing Out of Network Benefits (scenario and explanation)

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Scenario: Patient has a $1000 Out of Network deductible and 20% co-insurance. Explanation: The patient and therapist would agree to a fee. For the sake of this example and mathematics, let's utilize a hypothetical fee of $100/session. Patient would pay $100/session, which would take about 10 sessions (likely two-three months) to hit their deductible. Once that occurs, they would now be eligible for a rebate of 80%, or $80 of the fee from their insurance company given that their coinsurance is now 20%, meaning they now contribute $20/session instead of $100/session when taking into account the insurance rebate. (On a side note, while this agreement is between patient and insurance company and I as a therapist will help facilitate the necessary info to get this process started and assist you with initial steps, I cannot be responsible for issues within the jurisdiction of the insurance company/patient agreement). While this example is not illustrative of all scenarios and it is up to the patient to discuss this with insurance prior to beginning sessions to ensure their insurance company will honor their agreement, in most cases this is an accurate description of how out of network benefits work.