I’ve found that clients that actually pay out of pocket are more motivated and committed to their treatment.

No diagnosis is required!  The insurance company has a set of rules to abide by and include not paying for a treatment plan when a diagnosis isn’t given to a client!  With a self-paying client, I’m not bound to give a “guess diagnosis” and I have the flexibility to see clients as many times as necessary to truly understand what is going on before assigning a diagnosis.  Diagnosis should only be given when the therapist has assessed the complete situation and not just to get paid by the insurance company.

Also, some clients prefer not to use their insurance for different reasons.  Some client don’t like the idea of having a diagnosis placed on them, which is required by insurance companies.  For confidentiality reasons, some clients don’t want the insurance company, or others to have access to their therapy records, or don’t want a therapy record at all.

In general self-paying gives the client the benefits of:

• No need for mental diagnosis

• Greater focus on treatment

• The client and therapist are in control of what sort of treatment, how many sessions, and how often, instead of the insurance company making that decision

• No risks of other getting access to insurance records

• More confidentiality and privacy