Costs
As my private practice is not part of the statutory health insurance system, I cannot bill the statutory health insurance companies directly.
Depending on the individual contract, private health insurances (including state aid) usually reimburse a large part, sometimes all, of the costs of psychotherapy.
In the meantime, however, the so-called cost reimbursement procedure (“Kostenerstattung“) has also become well established among statutory health insurers in Germany: If you are unable to find a place in therapy without a long waiting period despite searching appropriately, your SHI is not fulfilling its statutory mandate – this is known as system failure. In this case, you can arrange your own treatment with a licensed psychotherapist without a health insurance fund and apply to your statutory health insurance provider in advance to have the costs covered. This entitlement is regulated in § 13 Para. 3 SGB V and applies to all health insurances.
How the respective health insurance companies regulate the application procedure varies from fund to fund. The health insurance companies often require proof that you cannot receive psychotherapy in a number of practices affiliated with the health insurance funds within a certain period of time, as well as an application form, a letter from the therapist with whom you wish to undergo therapy and their proof of qualification. It may also be the case that your health insurance company wants to arrange an appointment for you with a therapist who is approved by your health insurance company. Before starting psychotherapy, please find out for yourself from your health insurance company whether they will reimburse the costs of psychotherapy in a practice without a health insurance license and which forms you would need to submit. If your health insurance company only wants to reimburse part of the costs or not at all, you have the option of lodging an objection. Please feel free to contact me if necessary.
The DPtV has produced a flyer on the subject of cost reimbursement (in German):
Of course, you also have the option of paying for the therapy yourself. This can be an option for people who have exhausted the hourly quota of the respective health insurance companies but would still like to receive further therapy, or if their own (maybe international) health insurance does not want to cover the costs of therapy. It is also a way of keeping sensitive information, such as a mental health diagnosis, out of the insurance company’s own medical records. This could play a role, for example, in the case of an upcoming civil service appointment or future life and disability insurance policies.
Regardless of whether you pay for the therapy yourself or what your health insurance company is prepared to reimburse you, the fees for psychological psychotherapists are based on the scale of fees for psychotherapists (GOP) or the superordinate scale of fees for doctors (Gebührenordung für Ärzte – GOÄ). In the following document, I provide you with a list of the most frequently billed numbers according to GOÄ in the context of depth psychology-based psychotherapy (in German).