I work for a hospital as a certified medical coder so I'll tell you what I have found out. I will preface this by saying most of my job is coding for medical visits, not mental health. And I work and code for visits in the US.

Since the beginning of the whole COVID thing, insurance companies have been scrambling trying to figure out what they will accept and have only just now made up their minds on how hospitals and practices should bill and what they will cover. Some insurances are allowing us to bill as we normally do and attach modifiers to the codes to designate that the service was provided over the phone or via video. The amount charged to the insurance is the same as an in office visit.

Other insurances are asking us to use codes created specifically for telemedicine visits. The amounts that are charged to the insurance in this case is less than normal office visits.

If you pay a flat co pay, chances are you won't see a difference in what you pay. If you're working on a deductible or paying a co insurance then you may see a difference in what you used to pay vs what you pay now.

Hope this helps!