Your therapist provides a service (like a 60-minute session), sends a claim to your insurance, and your insurance decides how much they’ll pay based on your plan. You might have a copay, a deductible (the amount you pay before coverage kicks in), or coinsurance (a shared percentage after your deductible).

In other words, therapy is covered kind of like a doctor visit — but the details depend entirely on your specific plan.

Therapy coverage is weirdly complicated, even for professionals who deal with it every day. Here’s what’s really happening behind the scenes:

When you come to therapy, you’re receiving a healthcare service, just like when you see a doctor. Every service has a billing code — for example, a 60-minute session might be billed as 90837.

Your therapist sends that claim to your insurance company, which then decides:

How much they’ll cover

What part you’re responsible for

Whether your deductible has been met yet

If you haven’t met your deductible, you pay the full contracted rate until you do. After that, you might pay only a copay (a fixed amount, like $20) or coinsurance (a smaller percentage of the session cost).

Sometimes, insurance pays directly to the therapist. Other times, they send you a check. It’s not perfect, but once your benefits are clear, it gets much easier to predict.

If your therapist isn’t in-network with your plan, you might still get some money back.

You pay for sessions up front, your therapist gives you a superbill (basically a therapy receipt), and you submit it to your insurance for partial reimbursement.

How much you get back depends on your plan’s out-of-network rate

If your therapist doesn’t take your insurance directly, you might still have out-of-network coverage, which can help you get reimbursed for part of what you pay.

Here’s how it works step-by-step:

You pay your therapist their full session fee at the time of service.

Your therapist gives you a “superbill.”

It’s a detailed receipt with all the info your insurance needs: diagnosis code, CPT code, date, and provider info.

You submit that superbill (usually online through your insurance portal).

Your insurance reviews the claim and, if you have out-of-network coverage, sends you reimbursement for a percentage of the cost.

💡 Example:

Your therapist charges $200. Your plan reimburses 70% after your deductible. You’d get $140 back once that deductible is met.