letter to employer

Below is a sample letter that you can forward to your employer's Department of Human Resources simply by copying and pasting the text into an email and adding your name at the bottom of the page.
Please copy me on each email you send at patricia.i.ivan@gmail.com
Thank you! 
[This letter was edited on October 22, 2014 for reasons stated in this blog post- link to come]

Dear Employer,

I am writing to you about my insurance coverage for psychological services.

Under a new law in Quebec, Bill 21, all professionals qualified to provide psychological treatment (psychotherapy) are licensed by the Order of Psychologists of Quebec as psychotherapists.  These professionals have training and expertise which many psychologists lack.  Some psychotherapists are experts licensed in marriage and family therapy, others in social work, occupational therapy, psycho-education, career counselling, nursing and sexology.  Others are highly trained in unique forms of therapy like somatic therapy, art therapy or psychoanalysis, and many others.

Currently, however, the services of these experts are excluded by many insurance policies which only cover the services of psychologists.

When the consumer needs a psychological treatment, these policies force the consumer to choose between:

1) reimbursed sessions with a psychologist who may have little or sometimes no clinical training in the type of intervention sought, or

2) non-reimbursed sessions with a psychotherapist who, while not a psychologist, may have a license and/or many years of clinical experience and, like any psychologist in Quebec, is accredited by the Order of Psychologists.

More rational insurance provide clients coverage for the psychological services of all licensed psychotherapists.

It makes no sense that some policies continue to do otherwise. When an insurance policy limits the consumer's choice of providers, there is no cost containment of the services used. On the contrary, the value of their policy decreases.

An insurance policy that gives access to the largest pool of qualified providers helps reduce service costs.

I want access to all qualified providers authorized to provide the services I need.  For psychological services, this means that I want psychotherapy sessions covered with all psychotherapists accredited by the Order of Psychologists of Quebec who are legally licensed to provide them.

Please note: I am not requesting that a new psychological service be added to my current coverage. I am merely requesting access to a larger pool of providers licensed to provide that service.

Please inform me how my current policy provides coverage for psychological services, especially whether it covers all professionals qualified to provide these services: psychotherapists. If this is not currently the case, please rectify that situation with our insurance carrier.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,
[Your name]