Hi, looking to hear from anyone who has experience claiming counselling on Extras policies.
My partner and I are both attending counselling on a fortnightly/weekly basis. Unfortunately thanks to the cutback on Medicare rebated sessions we only get 10 rebated sessions a year (which cover less than half the cost anyway!). We took out a top level extras policy with Medibank earlier this year to help cover the costs once we run out of Medicare sessions. Unfortunately when trying to claim we’ve just found out only one of our counsellors are covered by Medibank - we both see different counsellors at the same clinic and both are registered under Medicare but only the one registered as a ‘psychologist’ is covered. The other is a mental health social worker and apparently her services aren’t covered which is baffling to me because they are providing the same service and both are recognised by Medicare.
Changing provider is not an option as it takes so long to find a good counsellor and build a rapport. I’ve asked around a few funds to see if any cover counselling by social workers and so far only Bupa have confirmed they do but their sub limits for mental health are so low it may not be worth taking out a policy with them. Does anyone know of any other funds I might have missed?
Could you potentially switch to your employer's Employee Assistance Program psychologists as an alternative?