Central Counseling Services has always done our best to be accessible to any client who reaches out to us. We began this practice because we wanted to provide the best possible care for clients, and to train new clinicians to become skilled practitioners in the specialties of their choice.

Mental Health Insurance Has Changed

In the ten plus years since we opened our doors in a small office with just the two of us, working part time whilst still working full time, we have seen a dramatic shift in how health insurance handles mental health benefits. It used to be that if you had an insurance company you knew they covered your mental health care as well.

It was simple…And now it is not. 

Now your insurance company has many different plans. Each of them may have a different coverage for mental health care. And many of “carve out” to a third party payer, which in turn has multiple levels of contracts with different providers.

It is, in a word, it’s a muddy mess.

How This Effects Central Counseling Services and you?

We must contact each insurance company to verify your mental health coverage. This can take several days to get authorization from your insurance company. Sometimes you may have a co-pay or yearly deductible that will need to be met. We do our best to know that information upfront and notify you. However, sometimes insurance companies change policies without notifying us. In the event that the insurance policy changes and they decide to no longer pay for your session, you will be held responsible for the expense.

Insurance companies we work with

  • Aetna

  • Blue Shield of California (most plans)

  • CalOptima

  • Carelon (Formerly Beacon)

  • CCS Education & Wellness

  • Cigna

  • HealthNet

  • IEHP

  • Kaiser Direct

  • Kid’s Court (by direct referral)

  • Lucet

  • Magellan

  • Managed Health Network (MHN)

  • Medicare

  • Meritain

  • Optum/United Healthcare

  • Sharp Health Plan

  • Tri-Care

  • Most PPO plans

  • The Pink Ribbon Place by direct referral

What if your insurance doesn’t cover us?

You will pay us directly and we will provide you with a Superbill upon request.

What is a Superbill?

A Superbill is a specialized receipt or invoice that contains specific information.  Insurance companies require this information to consider requests for reimbursement or requests that your charges be counted toward your yearly deductible or co-insurance amounts. Please note that ultimately it will be your insurance company’s decision to reimburse you our fees. Please check with your insurance company to see what your reimbursement rate might be.

What does insurance not cover?

Occasionally your therapy can not be covered by insurance, these situations include, counseling for personal growth issues including relationships and or couples therapy, parenting, coparenting, or as a school requirement. 

  • One reason is that to bill insurance we must assign a mental health diagnosis, and many times clients simply want to come in to work things out but fit a diagnosis. They may also not want to have that information released to their insurance company. Many of our clients want to have complete confidentiality and do not elect to use their insurance. 

    Our paperwork for your first appointment is available online and link will be emailed to you to complete through our secure client portal. Using this system save you time and ensures we are ready to proceed with your first appointment in a timely manner.

    • We do ask for a credit card to schedule an appointment to hold it for you. We do not charge it unless there is a no-call, no-show. That ensures your therapist is available for you, and that we can set a schedule that works for you.  

    • If you need help with this task, please take a photo of the front and back side of your insurance card along with a photo of your driver's license and email it to info@centralcounselingservices.com or you may text it to (951) 323-2182. Please allow a few day for us to get back to you.

If you do not have insurance, here are some resources you can contact.

We offer therapy with master-level students who are supervised by our licensed professionals: for more info visit us here