I have heard some therapists say that insurance generally will not pay for phone therapy. I called my insurance company once and asked about this. The woman I spoke with sounded very bored and unconcerned, but she apparently pulled up some list of things covered by insurance and informed me that "phone therapy wasn't on there." I didn't trust this response as definitive.

However, when discussing this with my T I asked her why she couldn't just bill it the way she would a normal session? What's it to the insurance company if we're talking on the phone or in her office? T said her understanding was that that was how phone therapy was billed, with the same code used for a "normal" therapy session. We've gone on to have several phone sessions since then and insurance has never balked yet.

I am wondering what others have found with Ts accepting (or not accepting) insurance for phone sessions? If you've done them, how were they paid for? Have you had issues with insurance companies declining to pay even if te T was agreeable? I am wondering how this is usually billed. And if it's really true that insurance companies don't care and Ts use the same codes when they bill either way. . . why do some Ts who offer distance therapy decline to take insurance and then say that insurance wouldn't cover it anyway?