Guides
Patient Billing & Insurance Guide
Healthcare Update
In late February, Change Healthcare, which manages billing and process claims for approximately one-third of all healthcare provider groups in the United States, including LifeStance, experienced an outage because of a cyberattack. As a result, the ability for those provider groups across the country to submit billing to insurance companies was halted for over two weeks.
Our team has been working hard to limit the impact of this outage on our patients. While you may experience delays in receiving your bills or seeing them reflected on your patient portal, we are committed to processing them as quickly and accurately as possible. Thank you for your understanding and patience.
Known Payer Issues Update
- For patients with California Medicare: We are actively working to resolve a hold on California Medicare claims. Please know that this hold will not affect your claims, nor will you owe anything beyond your patient responsibilities (cost share/copay/deductibles). We anticipate this will be fully resolved in the near future and will share updates as available.
- For patients with Anthem/Blue Cross Blue Shield: We are currently working to resolve a discrepancy in our network status in the following states: Colorado, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New Hampshire, New York (Empire), Ohio, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin. LifeStance is in network with Anthem/BCBS, despite Anthem/BCBS showing us as out of network. We are actively working with Anthem/BCBS to resolve this issue.
- For patients with Cigna: Cigna is currently reprocessing claims that originally processed out of network in error. Patients may see an EOB for a date of service previously processed.
Patient Portal
We encourage you to register for our patient portal. There you will have access to health record information, as well as the ability to send and receive messages with your LifeStance Care Team. You can also upload insurance cards, photo ID and other documents.
For your initial login, you’ll locate the email sent by our Intake Team when you scheduled your appointment. We recommend you bookmark the patient portal login page on your preferred browser, so you can return to use all the different features.
Patient Portal Registration & Login
Patient Portal: Uploading Insurance Cards
Patient Portal: Interpreting the Billing Statement
Billing Quick Facts
Copays
A set amount that a patient pays to their provider when services are rendered.
Co-insurance
A percentage of charge (contract rate) a patient will pay AFTER they have met their deductible.
Deductibles
A set amount a patient must pay each year toward their healthcare before insurance starts to share the costs of services.
Out of Pocket
The maximum amount a patient will pay for in network services in a given plan year. Once met, the insurance will cover 100%.
Where can I pay my bill?
Through our patient portal, account holders can make online credit card payments, view statements and payment history. Account holders can also access this information from the patient portal for all accounts in which they are linked to.
Does LifeStance Health offer any kind of financial assistance?
We work to provide healthcare resources for our communities with patients who are uninsured or underinsured. In furtherance of our goal to provide access to superior care to the patients in the communities we serve, it is our policy to offer a tiered percentage discount program to our patients based on their ability to pay when in financial hardship situations. Click the link below to contact our billing team in your state for more information.
Online Bill Payments
View Your State’s Payment Page
LifeStance online bill payments are quick, easy and secure. Simply choose your state from the drop down, search for your provider by their name and then choose the payment option for your provider and follow the onscreen instructions.
Insurance Quick Facts
EOB
EOB stands for explanation of benefits. It is a statement which is sent from the insurance company. It is not a bill; the statement simply explains what medical treatments/services were paid by the insurance company.
AOC add on codes
AOC stands for add-on codes, which is a healthcare common procedure coding system that describes a service that is performed in conjunction with the primary service by the same provider.
TPA
TPA stands for a third party administrator. A TPA is a company that provides operational services such as claims processing and employee benefits management under contract to another company. Insurance companies and self-insured companies often outsource their claims processing to third parties.
Carve out
Carve out refers to elimination of coverage of a specific category of benefit services, most commonly medical services which are not included in a standard health insurance contract and are paid for separately.
Insurance and Coverage
View Your State’s Insurance Page
Depending upon your insurance, some providers will be in-network, while others are out-of-network. This status impacts how much you’ll pay for care.
In-network
A provider who is contracted with your insurance is considered in-network. This means that patients may pay lower cost-sharing.
VS
Out of network
When a provider is not contracted with your insurance, they are out-of-network. The provider is not contracted with the health insurance plan to accept negotiated rates.
Am I Covered?
If you have questions about your coverage or financial responsibility, please contact your insurance plan administrator directly. Insurance customer service phone numbers can typically be found on the back of your insurance card.
You are financially responsible for the cost of the mental health services provided to you or your dependent(s) and for any portion of the fees not reimbursed or covered by your health insurance, including late cancellations and missed appointments.
Billing and Insurance FAQs
Scheduling Assistance
- If you have questions regarding digital check in, please contact the office directly.
- If you have questions regarding no-show or late cancellation fee, please contact the office directly.
- If you need to cancel your appointment due to an emergency, please contact the office directly. Please note that you may accrue a charge, and billing cannot cancel your appointment.
No Show
We plan our appointments to ensure our professionals can dedicate the necessary time and attention to each patient. To help us maintain this level of care, it is essential that you honor your appointment by arriving on time or providing a cancellation notice at least 48 business hours in advance. Failure to cancel your appointment within this time frame may result in a no-show fee being charged.
Payment Assurance
I received an email or a text telling me that my card will be charged for my balance in 5 days. How do I change the credit card the charge will run on?
- Please call your local office or the billing call center to discuss any charges set to charge in 5 days.
Note: If patients have a balance on their account 30 days after an appointment date, that balance will be subject to Payment Assurance.
What is Payment Assurance?
Payment Assurance is an automated process that will send an email (and if a patient opts in, a text) to all patients that meet this balance criteria.
Note: Patients without a credit card on file will receive an email titled Payment Reminder with a link to make a payment.
Patients with a credit card on file will receive an email titled Automated Payment Notification informing the patient that the balance will be charged to the credit card on file in five days.
Note: There is no action required on the patient’s part; however, the email informs the patient if they want to pay with a different payment method, to call the office.
Important note for patients: DPCI uses the last card uploaded by the patient if they have multiple cards on file.
For no CCOF, the message sent to patients is a notification of the current balance with a link to pay.
Account balances set up on a Payment Plan in DPCI are exempt from Payment Assurance (Payment Assurance skips sending these).
Self Service Payment Plans:
Patients can schedule their own payment plans for up to 2, 3, or 4 month durations. If there is a need to work out a payment plan with more options, please contact the billing department to discuss your options.
