Being both a psychotherapist and a coach, new clients often ask if they can pay for coaching with their health insurance. \u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0In the US, this is almost never possible.<\/p>\n
The rare exceptions might be for cases of smoking cessation and weight loss programs, if and when such coaching is prescribed and supervised by a medical doctor. But in the extremely few cases I’ve heard about where health insurance is paid, payments were made to clinics employing coaches, and not to coaches in private practice.<\/p>\n
Health insurance pays for the treatment of a defined set of disorders. \u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0Even though a rocky relationship or the stresses of low life achievement may contribute to some mental health problems, such conditions are not covered by insurance. \u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0In fact, to be able to use health insurance you have to be given a diagnosis, and the only diagnosis’ that would remotely apply would be those that fall in the category of mental illness.<\/p>\n
In effect, your health insurance company is telling you that to get coaching paid for by them, you’d have to be mentally ill.<\/p>\n
Although I’ve had some potential clients claim to not be concerned about whether they are diagnosed with depression, anxiety, phobia, etc, there are good reasons why you don’t want to have a mental illness diagnosis on record. \u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0Despite the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act ( HIPAA), which is supposed to protect privacy of medical records, there are a number of situations in which your records can be accessed or compromised — to your detriment.<\/p>\n
Many health insurance claims are electronically outsourced to workers in other countries to process, making your records susceptible to being hacked on the internet. \u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0A CNN reporter accessed her records in a live news hour to demonstrate how very easily this can be done.<\/p>\n
Should you have an auto accident that involves injuries, your medical records — including your mental illness status — will be available to attorneys and legal staff, and word will come out in court if a dispute goes that far. \u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0I’ve known cases when passengers have been denied legal representation in the aftermath of a car accident because they had a pre-existing diagnosis of bipolar disorder (manic depression), making their claim of emotional distress due to the accident, suspect.<\/p>\n
Even though it’s not supposed to happen, employers have been known to find out about mental illness claims, and have denied promotions or even fired employees in “at will” states, on the pretext of being unstable and therefore unsuitable for employment.<\/p>\n
For these reasons, it’s best to not even wade into the quagmire that is health insurance when seeking ways to pay for coaching.<\/p>\n