How much therapy does my insurance cover?
Please note: our blog posts are solely informational and are not meant to replace individualized therapeutic advice or healthcare.
You want to get your therapy covered by your insurance company, right? You’re paying for the insurance anyway, you might as well use it up. But, how much does it cover and what does that mean for the number of sessions in therapy?
Let’s start by saying that each insurance company and even each benefits package within a company is different. They sure don’t make it easy to get a straight answer.
But, most insurance companies offer some coverage for therapy. The pandemic made mental health struggles worse for so many folks and many insurance companies responded by increasing their coverage amounts for mental health services. How amazing!
We’ve seen an increase of about $500 per benefit year for therapy and related mental health services on top of their previous benefit amount. So if you previously had $500 then you’re likely now able to access $1000 of coverage, if you previously had $1000 then it could be $1500 now. But these are rough estimates based on observations we’ve made with our clients.
What does that mean for you? How many sessions is that?
If you consider the typical rate of therapy to be about $150/hr. (with a range of $120 - $200 depending on the therapist and their specialization) then you would be looking at just over 3 sessions with $500 of coverage, over 6 with $1000, 10 with $1500, and so on and so forth.
There are ways to make these benefits go farther though.
If you are open to speaking with intern therapists, those folks completing their Masters of Counselling degrees, then you could be looking at a rate that’s half the price of regular therapy. That means you just doubled your number of sessions, just like that!
Intern therapists are well trained, fresh faced and eager to provide you with a great therapeutic experience. They are always supervised by another more seasoned therapist who offers them direction along the way. So if they’re stuck with some issue then they have a highly experienced mentor to turn to and learn from.
Ultimately, there are a few steps to take for you to figure out what kind of specific coverage you have with your insurance company.
Reach out to Sun Life, Manulife, Canada Life, Green Shield or whoever is your provider to ask them about coverage for mental health services.
Questions to ask your insurance company
How much mental health coverage does my plan cover?
What kind of professionals (what designations) do you cover?
This will be important for finding a therapist that they will actually pay for like a registered psychotherapist, registered social worker, registered psychologist etc.
Is there a maximum amount per session that you will cover?
Some companies set a maximum for each session, maybe that’s $100 or maybe it’s $200, that depends on the company and their package
When does the benefit amount renew?
Typically this will be January 1st though it does differ with different professionals and their specific agreements. For example, a teacher’s school year begins in September and so their packages renew at that point too, typically.
Shopping for a Health Insurance Quote
If you don’t have insurance currently but are hoping to get some with some decent mental health coverage. You can ask all of the above questions regarding their benefits package and decide what # of sessions makes sense to you and your needs. If you think 10ish is plenty and you are happy to see an intern, then $750 of coverage would be great. If you want an experienced therapist and would likely need more sessions then that number will increase (see above for more information).
If you are ready to take the next step in therapy, you can contact us with questions or book a FREE consultation. We’ll get to know you and your needs in therapy and then pair you with the right therapist on our team.
