Lifestyle Factors that Impact Billing Insurance for Mental Health Services
Most psychologists and clinicians are interested in learning about their patients. We like, for the purposes of clinical conceptualization and assessment, to understand the changes in our patients’ lives. So, we often ask many questions to assess these changes.
But, if you are interested in getting paid for your mental health services, you should also consider how these changes relate to their insurance and patient financial responsibility.
Many physician and dental offices have payment policies about informing staff of changes in patients’ insurance plans.
And many mental health practices are trained to ask this question periodically whether patients have made a change in their insurance.
But, what do you do if you don’t have front office staff to help keep your client’s information updated?
First, establish a routine. Make it a habit to ask patients if they have changed their insurance plans.
Additionally, take note during your therapy sessions if your patient discusses the change in his or her life. This might be a signal to you that they would have experienced a change in insurance plans.
Consider these 4 lifestyle changes that can affect billing insurance companies for the mental health services you provide:
Getting Married
Marriages often create a change in a persons’ work status. They have stopped working or changed jobs because of varying reasons such as a move or child care responsibilities.
Getting Divorced
Again, when a patient gets divorced, this engenders many changes. People who had previously been covered by a spouse’s insurance now are motivated to get a new job and may no longer have the insurance coverage they had in the past. Divorces promote many changes, so moves and financial changes all could signal a change in insurance plans, including placing children on Medicaid plans.
Moving Away
If your patient tells you that he or she has just moved into your city, then this could mean that a there is a new job on the horizon.
Young adults who have previously been covered by their parents’ insurance plans may now be out on their own and now are responsible for their own coverage.
Job Changes
This is the most obvious of reasons why insurance coverage will change. This can produce a big change in insurance plans and of course create a change for patient responsibility and copays.
No matter the reason for the change, you should not hesitate to ask about new insurance plans.
It isn’t hard at the end of your clinical session to mention that you heard the patient mention that he or she underwent a change and you wondered if that meant they had new insurance. This is not just benefiting you but them as well. No one wants to end up with unpaid services and that includes patients as well as you.
Streamline Your Mental Health Billing
Get paid correctly for your mental health services with mental health billing company, Anchor Point Billing Solutions. Our team of mental health billing specialists can help check patient benefits and responsibilities.
We have the insurance management process expertise to increase revenue and improve cash flow. Ready to get started? Give us a call today at 816.753.7071.