Financial Help

If you are having difficulty affording your medical care or living costs, the following resources may be able to help:

• Your local 211 service lists general financial help online and can provide resources by phone, simply dial 211. Here is their website with searchable database: https://www.211.org/
• The Association for Financial Counseling and Planning Education can help with finding a certified financial counselor or coach: https://findanafc.org/ OR https://www.afcpe.org/  
• The Patient Advocate Foundation can provide some financial help and most of their clients are cancer patients: https://www.patientadvocate.org/
• Washington State also has a charity care program to help people who cannot afford healthcare. If you live outside of Washington State, check your state’s website to see if they also have charity care: https://www.wsha.org/for-patients/financial-assistance/washingtons-charity-care-law/

Getting Mental Healthcare

Getting mental healthcare can be challenging. Below you can find a summarized information about different types of mental healthcare and advice on how to access mental healthcare in the United States.

Mental healthcare generally takes one of two forms:

1. Medication prescribed by a psychiatrist or a primary care doctor. These providers are typically medical doctors (MD) but can include advanced registered nurse practitioners (ARNP) with special psychiatric training. Typically, you will have to return and see your doctor in a few weeks to a month to see if any new medication is working.
2. Talk therapy with a counselor, psychologist, or social worker. Counselors have a Master of Counseling (MC) or divinity (MDiv) or education (MEd) while social workers have a Master of Social Work (MSW). Psychologists have a Doctor of Philosophy in psychology (PhD) or a Doctor of Psychology (PsyD). Therapists who provide primarily family or couples therapy have a masters of marriage and family therapy (MFT). Ideally, talk therapy involves weekly sessions when you first start seeing someone. Talk therapy lasts from several weeks to several years depending on the situation.

If you have health insurance, it is usually best to find someone who accepts your insurance, called being in-network. However, some health insurance companies will reimburse you the costs of a doctor’s or therapist’s appointment even if the person does not accept your insurance (called ‘out-of-network’) as long as you have a receipt. This means you will have to pay your doctor’s or therapist’s full fee and then be reimbursed afterwards. Some insurance plans do not reimburse anything for out of network care so make sure to check first. The amount the insurance company will pay is usually less for out of network care than for in network care. This means you will usually have to pay more for out of network care than in network care.

If you decide to use your insurance, look on your insurance company’s website for a ‘provider search’ to find someone who takes your insurance and is nearby. These search tools will let you filter by whether someone is accepting new patients. Note, even if it says on an insurance company’s website that a provider is accepting new patients or takes your insurance, they might not be. The provider search websites are sometimes not updated. Often, you will have to contact several counselors or doctors before you find one with an opening.

Most full-time therapists list themselves in Psychology Today’s therapist search (link below). However, make sure to check with your insurance company to see if they are ‘in-network’. Otherwise, you will have to pay the cost of the session yourself and be reimbursed if your insurance company covers out-of- network care. Link: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists

To figure out if a therapist or doctor is in-network, look on the back of your health insurance card for the patient phone number. Call the number and verify if the specific provider is in-network.

Other resources:

National Crisis Line: 988 (formerly: 1-800-273-TALK (8255))