Marriage Counseling
and Insurance

Marriage counseling is rarely if ever covered by health insurance companies.  We believe that the marriage counseling provided by Life Skills Counseling Center is effective and worth the investment and, when done well, we know that successful marriage counseling save a tremendous amount of money for both the individuals involved (avoiding the rampant costs of divorce and maintaining multiple households) and for insurance companies (research has demonstrated that couples who create, maintain, and remains in healthy marriages are significantly healthier than those who suffer through a divorce or remain single, resulting in lower health care costs).  Still, there are still a variety of reasons that insurance companies have chosen not to cover marriage counseling. 

For more on why marriage counseling fails, click HERE to read our article, Does Marriage Counseling Work?

As a result, many marriage therapists have attempted to work around that "problem" by providing couples with a diagnosis for which the insurance company may provide reimbursement.  Technically, this is insurance fraud and the staff of the Life Skills Counseling Center will not do that.

If you want to be reimbursed by your insurance company and there is a individual diagnosis that can ethically be made on an individual, then we will gladly provide that diagnosis and the paperwork to file with your insurance company.  We will also do family counseling, which is covered by most insurance companies, with the necessary members present. 

However, if ultimately we are providing professional counseling services for phase of life issues, marriage and family counseling, bereavement issues, and the like, there are considered "phase of life" issues and are not classified as a mental illness.  From a diagnostic coding standpoint, these are listed as "V-Codes."  V-Codes are normally not covered by your insurance company, but you are more than welcome to call and check.

Bottom line, if you want a diagnosis (Please make sure you have read "Benefits of Not Filing a Claim with Your Insurance Company for Mental Health Care,") we will provide you with one; however, we will provide what we professionally believe to be the most accurate diagnosis, not one that only seeks to allow for reimbursement from your insurance provider.

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Dr. Tim A. Gardner, LMHC
Life Skills Counseling Center
11805 North Pennsylvania Street
Carmel, Indiana  46032   USA