My therapist let me know at our last session that she is leaving the current practice, and starting her own, and that she will be out of network for all insurance. Sigh. I've had it very good - mental health is exempt from the deductible, and my co-pay was $30. My FSA modeling was all based on this obviously. In the new world, I will be subject to a $1400 deductible, then after that, they will cover 60% of the allowable amount. What's the allowable amount, you ask? Good question, one which my health insurance company cannot answer. It's apparently a proprietary number that the phone reps don't have access to. So the only way I can find out is to file a claim, and see if it comes back on the EOB. Not sure if that detail will be on there before I meet the deductible though.
She will be charging $150 a session. I obviously don't have this built into my budget to pay for up front, so I will be using the FSA to pay for it. By the time I start getting reimbursements, I have a feeling that they'll be somewhere around $20-$30 a session (ouch). My plan was to use as much of the FSA as possible to cover off on extra medical appointments this year related to surgeries (clearances, lots of extra bloodwork, etc)....but I guess that's scuttled. I was also hoping to be able to incorporate medical massage. Oh well. I am glad I have this option.....pre-FSA, I likely would have had to try to find another therapist in-network, and from all I'm hearing that's not an easy proposition these days. I will likely have to change the cadence of my sessions to monthly, rather than bi-weekly. Assuming that I go down to monthly, it looks like I will have about $1000 in the FSA to play with.
In other not-so-fun news, I have kept cracking away at my taxes. I'm still waiting on some forms that could be coming, but as we approach later in Feb, I will probably start to mentally strike them off the list as likely to show up. So these numbers could obviously still change (although it woud be nice if they didn't).....as of right now, it's looking like I owe about $3k. OUCH. I'll be able to pay the state taxes in full, and will have to do a payment plan for federal. The bonus I mentioned in my last entry will come in May. That will all be directed towards this. I also may be receiving a referral bonus if a friend I referred is hired.....this is usually a few thousand dollars. I have no idea what the amount is these days as it keeps changing lol. If she's hired this month, it would come sometime in June (90 days after the new hire starts). So, it should all be fine, but not what I was hoping for the year.