Are therapists and psychiatrist who don't take insurance better?

I have had a 10 year unsuccessful struggle with trying to find a therapist and psychiatrist. I have desperately been trying to find good help.

Recently, I was told that no good therapist or psychiatrist takes insurance. I don't have out-of-network benefits so seeing someone without insurance would require me to take out loan. I really need to finally get the right medication and counseling so I want to make sure it's worth taking out a loan to see someone out of network if that's better.

Can anyone tell me if this is true? Are mental health professionals who don't take insurance really better than those who do?

No. There are good ts that take insurance.

I don't know that I would want to see a t who limited him/herself to clients who had buckets of money.

That's ridiculous! Would you say the only good heart surgeons are the ones who only work on a cash-only basis?

My husband saw a psychiatrist who only worked cash-only. He was an ***! He had a very high opinion of his abilities, was not available when needed, and was condescending as hell.

Other than him, we've always worked with therapist and pdocs who take our insurance. We've had excellent care, the quality of their work has been very professional and effective, and we have had no problem receiving services or with confidentiality in any way, shape, or form. Without insurance, we simply could not afford therapy or psychiatric care at all now, so we use the resources that we have available to us and have absolutely no regrets about using the insurance benefits that we pay for.

No, why would they be?

None of the three I've seen recently took insurance, and there was a range of quality among them - two good, one meh. The one I saw in college, who did take insurance, was also meh, but better than the meh one who didn't take insurance.

Think of it the other way around, in just as stereotypical a way of reasoning: insurance companies don't like paying benefits. They want results. They are unlikely to fund visits to ineffective practitioners. Therefore only bad therapists don't take insurance. But we know that's not true, so why would the reverse be true?

I pay cash but not because I think they are better - I just don't want insurance companies in my life.

No, this is not true. There are many myths out there and this is one of them. I have no idea what people base this belief on but I've seen some very decent therapists who were taking insurance and some horrible therapists who were outside of insurance networks. By all means, use your insurance. You'll have just as big a chance to find a good therapist that takes your insurance than if you go out of network.

Both my t and pdoc take insurance and they are both very skilled.

Not true.. at all.

There a good T's and not so good ones regardless if they take insurance or not.

Its often like trying to buy an item of clothes you have to try some out to see if its a good fit.

Everyone takes my insurance. By this logic every single doctor in my state is terrible because they all take my insurance.

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Therapists, in the region I am in, do not have to take any insurance. There is no insurance company here that a therapist must take.
It is not the same as mds at all.

There are awesome Ts who take insurance. Sometimes I think it just makes a difference if they have someone who does the filing for them or if they do it themselves, etc. Insurance IS a pain for Ts, but whether or not they take it is no indication of their worth or ability.

just a bit of info.... the way american health care now works is every american must have insurance... because of this law all treatment providers in the USA now or are in the process converting over to accepting insurance plans along with giving their patients the option of paying cash\out of pocket...the reason for this is since americans now must have health care there is no .....need.... to pay cash.

kind of redundant pay premiums\co pays \ or free for health insurance then dont use the insurance and pay mega bucks cash or check. most that I know would consider not using the insurance they now by law must have and paying out of pocket to be a waste of their money.

I know some treatment providers who have lost clients because they did not accept insurance when this new law took affect. they ended up getting the process done to accept medicaid, medicare and other insurance plans.

Im not saying americans cant go see someone that their insurance company hasnt assigned to them and pay out of pocket, they can, Im just saying since Americans are now required to have insurance or get fined, treatment providers must now accept insurance plans as one of their paying options. its part of the new health care laws.

I don't think that's true. Otherwise why would a decent number of doctors be opting out of the ACA exchange plans?

In the past year I have had three therapists, a psychiatrist, and an anesthesiologist who accepted no insurance whatsoever.

In my state, many therapists do not accept insurance. They are not switching over. A client can submit to their insurance company as an out of plan provider -but the therapist itself does not have to take the insurance.

From the apa website:
Psychologists and other mental health providers can choose whether or not to accept insurance. Unfortunately, many insurance companies have not increased the reimbursement rate for psychologists in 10 or even 20 years despite the rising administrative costs of running a practice. Other companies have recently cut their reimbursement rates. As a result, some plans have trouble attracting mental health professionals to participate in their networks. If your options seem limited and your insurance is provided through your employer, you might consider discussing your concerns with your human resources representative. He or she may take that into consideration when negotiating your company's plan with insurance companies in the future.
http://www.apa.org/helpcenter/parity-guide.aspx

And info on the affordable health care act for counselors:
http://www.counseling.org/PublicPoli..._Act_12-12.pdf

And as well, the insurance plan does not have to provide out of network coverage.
My therapist takes no insurance, and neither do a lot of therapists in my area.

When Ts don't take insurance it's for a lot of reasons, but not because they are better at their job. Therapists of any licensing are not required to take insurance at all but many do. When they don't it's often because dealing win insurance is such a headache and because the reimbursement rates are so low. It's also not uncommon for well known Ivy League psychologists and psychiatrists to stop taking insurance once they've reached a certain point in their career. Again it's not necessarily because they are too good for insurance but rather so they can have more control over their practice and be selective about what clients they take on.

Thank you for all the responses! You've given me a lot of useful information

The reason I asked was because I was told by a therapist who did not feel qualified to take me on that therapists and psychiatrists take insurance when they are inexperienced because they want to gain some experience and build up their client-base. He said that once they are experts in their field, they stop taking insurance because there are no benefits to taking insurance due to the hassle and poor reimbursement.

opting out of ACA exchange isnt about whether or not they must accept insurance. some states decided they do not what to expand their medicaid and medicare programs (lower their income bracket requirements) and they have their own websites where people in their states can sign up for various health care options rather than sending people to the federal website to do that.

short version many dont want the hassle of only being able to use website option a few days out of the year (healthcare.gov is only open so many days a year for people in the USA to register and "shop" for insurance where as individual state websites are "open for business" every day 24\7)

yes there still are a rare few that are still on the no insurance way because it takes time to get certified and get insurance companies to agree to add that physical or mental health agency to their list. insurance companies have a budget to follow and if they have reached their budget then they have to tell an agency sorry we cant add your company to our plans we can put you on the waiting list for a future agency listed with our insurance company.

line in the sand when obama care went into affect it didnt only affect clients, it affected treatment providers and insurance companies alike.

those you see that dont accept insurance probably have not gotten their certification for doing that or are waiting for insurance companies to agree to have them on their list of who they will pay out to.

Maybe it's different for medical practitioners, I don't know. But there are primary care physicians now who are going into a "direct payment" model. They do not take insurance so they are not required to follow the excessive requirements from the insurance companies. It's a way of cutting out the middle man. In some situations it's working out very well for the doctors as well as the patients. They work to keep the costs down for the patient so it's afforable and the patients still may carry insurance for emergency, hospital stays, etc

Again, I think you are misinformed. While it would seem logical that if all Americans are required to have health insurance, providers must take some form of insurance, I do not think that is the case. After all, Americans don't need to comply with the ACA if they are willing to pay a tax penalty, so why would doctors be required to?

The three therapists and the psychiatrist I saw were all adamant that they would never take insurance. And it made no sense for the anesthesiologist to be in anyone's network, since he was hired by surgical centers, not the patient directly. He was paid through my insurance, but only through balance billing, which is not the same as taking insurance.

I have spent some time Googling what you say and cannot find any official US government website that says all practitioners must take insurance. If you could post such a link, I would be most interested to see it.