“Does reflect take insurance?” is a question we get asked a lot. The quick answer is that we do not take in-network insurance because our priority is getting you the help you need when you’re ready, and we don’t think you should settle for suboptimal care. Most top therapists do not take insurance and the ones that do usually have long wait lists that prevent you from getting the help you need fast. reflect has built a new model that solves the pain point of insurance, while keeping therapy accessible.
Before starting reflect, our team also tried using insurance to find a therapist and was frustrated with how horrible the experience was. Therapists would either have long wait lists or not call us back, and the few therapists that were available were a bad fit. It’s not uncommon for us to hear stories of clients calling long lists of therapists from insurance directories, and never even hear back. The unfortunate reality is that the insurance model in the U. S. disincentivizes quality care. Here are some reasons why:
Top therapists avoid insurance due to low rates
The rates that insurance companies pay therapists are typically 50% of what they can get via cash pay in private practice. They also require a lot of paperwork, which takes up even more of a therapist's time. Imagine how you would feel, if half of the money from the time you spent working gets taken directly from you and on top of that, you have to spend unpaid extra time to do paperwork. This is why, more often than not, the highest quality of therapists, who can fill up their practice on their own, don't take insurance. The therapists that do go on insurance panels are usually newer and want to build their practice, and even eventually even they want to get off it.
Therapists who take insurance are overwhelmed with their caseloads
Therapists that do take insurance will need to see twice the amount of clients to make the same amount of money. As a result of this, they often end up seeing too many clients, which diminishes the quality of care they are able to provide. If you have ever had a therapist where they could not remember what you talked about, or got you mixed up with one of their other clients, this is most likely the reason.
Moreover, because they have so many clients, therapists that take insurance usually have very limited availability which leads to long wait lists. As previously mentioned, most therapists aim to eventually get off insurance panels, and thus, they leave slots open for self-pay clients in order to start transitioning, which exacerbates the problem of their limited availability. This is why a lot of the in-network therapists that you try to connect with from sources such as psychology today have no slots available or are too busy to even respond back to you. We have heard from clients that use reflect out of frustration with their own therapy search that sometimes, it takes up to 6 months before they can see someone that takes their insurance.
It is hard to find a good fit through insurance
Even if you do find a good therapist that takes your insurance, and has availability to see you immediately, they might not be a good fit. There are many different therapy styles, and many different factors that help determine whether a therapist is able to help you. For example, you may want a therapist that is more of a mentor vs a peer or one that gives you advice and sets goals as opposed to one that just listens to you. Unfortunately, it is very common for people that choose to seek therapy via the insurance route to spend valuable time and energy on sessions with a therapist that is not the right fit for them and end up having to start from scratch when they realize that it is not working for them.
Reflect makes quality care affordable
The insurance model for therapy is broken and disincentivizes quality care. But at reflect, we think you deserve the best care and are working hard to lower costs through a new model. We have pre-negotiated rates with top therapists that are lower than cash pay but higher than what they would get with insurance to ensure that you do not have to break the bank to focus on your mental health.
In addition, we can help you further reduce the cost of therapy by an average of 60% using your HSA/FSA account or Out-of-Network insurance benefits. Unlike going through traditional private practice, reflect will take care of all the paperwork and help with claim submissions to ensure the lowest cost possible for our members.
Lastly, because we only work with top therapists, reflect also has no waitlists, ensuring that you get help when you need it most, instead of wasting time searching for a therapist. We use 55 different data points to match you with the right therapist for you and you can talk to your matches during a free intro consultation to make sure it is the right fit before starting sessions!
Your mental health shouldn’t wait. We can help you get matched to a top therapist today, click the button below!