Why Don’t You Take Insurance?

A report by RTI International found that people were almost 11 times “more likely to go out of network to find psychological care than to find specialty medical care” (American Psychological Association, 2024). A lot of psychological care providers don’t take insurance and are out-of-network. You may wonder why. A significant reason is due to the low level of reimbursement for in-network mental health providers. The lack of parity in medical care directly relates to this shortage of in-network mental health providers. It was shown that for all medical/surgeon office visits, the average reimbursement was 21.7% higher than for all behavioral health clinicians. To address this issue, RTI International recommends health plans expand their mental health networks and use higher reimbursement to the extent necessary to decrease out-of-network participation for psychological care. The study shows the nation’s need for more robust parity enforcement and explains why so many patients pay out of pocket expenses when getting mental health care.

American Psychological Association. (2024, April 17). APA alarmed by poor network access for mental health patients [Press release].

Mark, T. L., & Parish, W. J. (2024). Behavioral Health Parity – Pervasive Disparities in Access to In-Network Care Continue. RTI International.