BlackCanary, I schedule mine one at a time as I go, but not because an insurance company tells me to do it that way. I can't see why an insurance company would care what time you meet each week. Maybe you need the same time each week because that's your only free time.

With my first T, I also only scheduled one at a time, because my schedule was so variable. With my next T, my current guy, we started the same way but shortly thereafter, he gave me a regular slot, same time each week. That made me feel so good!! I didn't realize that therapists do this a lot. It made me feel like I mattered to him, that he was willing to carve out the same time in his schedule each week, just to see me. He reserved that time for me and wouldn't let other clients have it. It was great! I was very needy then, so this helped me in some way. Now I am doing a lot better, and we just schedule one appointment at a time. This is working well for me.

Have you called your HMO to ask about their weird policy? I would be very curious to hear their rationale.