I'm sorry you had that experience. Our agency provides services free, except for the custody exchange program, regardless of income through several funding sources. I do remember my days working with managed, care third- party payers. I was like walking a tight rope. I developed a "script" where I had to say, "the client is making progress and will greatly benefit from continued treatment." This was in a residential substance use disorders treatment facility, When the insurance companies started dictating what type of therapy we performed, from their manual, I left. Another reason for leaving was the administration forbade me from working on what was known in substance treatment as Adult Children of Alcoholics and other Dysfucntional Familes (ACoA) issues. I saw them as unprocessed trauma issues that could be treated in a co-occurring (dual diagnosis) approach. This was in the early 1990s and that facilities philosophy was that addictions are primary, progressive disorders and that looking at underlying reasons was enabling further use and excusing the addictions. We've come a long way since then and the Minnesota Model of addiction is now trauma informed.
I now work with children and families directly on trauma and thank goodness, we don't have to deal with our state's version of Medi-Cal, Medicaid. They are very hard to even bill for. I was also trained as a medical assistant with a focus on trauma and billing. It's a relief to no longer have to reduce human suffering to an ICD or DMS code to get paid to keep the doors to the agency open. We still have to jump through a few hoops for accreditation and funding, but we are not dictated how to do our work. I'm glad you found a clinician who was able to help.
My lunch is almost over, so I need to go.