If you and your spouse have been fighting more frequently lately due to long hours at work, financial stress, or other factors outside your direct control, you may feel it's crucial to seek outside help before your relationship suffers an irreparable breakdown. Unfortunately, finding the time or money to visit a therapist when you're already short on both can just add to the burden you're carrying. Fortunately, in some situations you may be able to utilize your health-insurance plan to pay for the care you and your spouse need. Read on to learn more about the coverage that your health care policy or employee program (EAP) may provide for marital counseling or therapy.
Does your health insurance cover marital counseling?
Although most health insurance policies will exclude general marital counseling, there is one key exception that may provide some help. Health insurance does cover therapy that is designed to diagnose or treat a mental health condition like depression or bipolar disorder. In many cases, this therapy can include the patient's spouse as a key part of the patient's mental-health management. This means that if either you or your spouse suffers from undiagnosed depression or another mental health issue, you may be able to bring the other spouse in to discuss treatment options and communication strategies without paying more than your regular copay.
What are your other options when it comes to paying for counseling sessions?
If neither you nor your spouse has a diagnosable medical or mental health condition that would place counseling sessions under the coverage umbrella of your health insurance plan, you may still have some options to reduce the cost of therapy.
Your first stop should be your employer's human resources department to find out whether an employee assistance program (EAP) is offered. These often-overlooked programs can provide a number of free or reduced-cost counseling sessions on just about any topic, from job stress to marital stress and anything in between. You may opt to utilize your EAP coverage on some counseling sessions for you and your spouse to improve your communication skills and help get you started with the tools to reduce the amount of conflict in your relationship. Because EAP coverage often resets at the beginning of the year, starting this process during the holiday season may allow you to utilize two separate years' worth of appointments over a fairly short window of time.
This can also be a good way to test-drive a counselor to determine whether this is an avenue that is likely to be successful. If you and your spouse don't "click" with a counselor, or if your spouse expresses a major aversion to therapy, you'll be able to find this out for free (or a low cost) rather than paying for a therapy session that may or may not be fruitful.
Contact a provider such as Psychological Associates of Pennsylvania PC to set up a session.
Share4 August 2016
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