Razzleberry, I see a PNP and she bills some visits as "meds consultations" or something like that, and when I stay longer and we talk more, she bills as "psychotherapy." The latter are taken out of my mental health visit allotment that insurance covers, but the strictly meds consulations come out of my regular medical health coverage, not mental health. So even though my mental health visits have a yearly cap, I could see this PNP many more times if she billed those visits as medical. Anyway, I'm wondering if your plan is the same, and you could get more visits with the PNP if she bills them as medical instead of mental health visits? Maybe, if you know her well, and explain the situation, she would be willing to bend a little and bill a psychotherapy visit as medical. A lot of T's will bend the rules in these ways to get around some of the obnoxious insurance rules.

My regular T is not reimbursable by insurance at all, so I understand your dilemma. I pay him 100% out of pocket because he is worth it to me. I can't see him as often as I'd like, but right now in my life I need his services, so I am using some of my savings. I'm lucky to be able to do that and I know not everyone has those reserves.

You might be able to get your PNP to only bill your insurance for every other session and have you pay out of pocket for the ones she doesn't submit to insurance. That way you could spread out the cost over the year, instead of using up all your covered visits in the beginning of the year.

I have never heard of a lifetime cap on mental health visits. That's terrible! The only think my plan has a lifetime cap on is orthodontia. Everything else resets at the beginning of he year. Do you have a choice of insurance plans where you work? If so, since the new year is coming up, maybe you can change to a different insurance carrier so you can escape this lifetime cap. It seems really unusual to me. And terrible!