Out-of-Network Information

A provider network is a group of doctors and other healthcare professionals who contract with an insurance plan to provide lower cost care to its members. Most insurance companies have a website where members can search for in-network (contracted) providers before seeking care.

Great Lakes Psychology Group has a large network of affiliated providers who individually contract with various insurance companies. Due to this, we may have therapists available who can accept your insurance. If we do not (you would have been informed of this in the benefits email you received), you may choose to keep your appointment and utilize your out of network benefits (if available) or pay privately for services.

Great Lakes Psychology Group makes every effort to schedule you with a therapist who is able to accept your insurance, however there are several things that could have complicated this:

• Carve-out policies:  Some insurances utilize a different company for their behavioral health benefits.  
  • An example of this may be a policy which uses Blue Cross Blue Shield for medical but Carelon Health (formerly Beacon Health) for Behavioral Health.  The insurance card will list this but it is typically very easy to miss, especially if it’s your first time seeking mental health care. 
  • We might schedule you with a therapist who can accept Blue Cross but who is out of network with Carelon Health. In this case we would need to use your out of network benefits or try to reschedule you with an in network therapist.
• Confusing Insurance Cards:  Some clients report having multiple network logos listed on their insurance card and if it is unclear which network should be used for mental health care the wrong network is often used for scheduling the first appointment.
• Multiple Insurances:  Many times, clients will have multiple insurance policies covering them at the same time.  In these cases, we try to ensure that we schedule you with a provider who is in-network with both of your plans, however, if both are not provided when scheduling, we could find out later that one or both are out-of-network
  • CoB Link

We want to be respectful of your time and money, so we do have several options available.  You may:

• Contact your insurance for a referral within your network
• Flexible Payment Plans
  • Card on file
  • Payment reminders PRIOR to payment being charged
  • Easy to pay from anywhere(??)