Every rate we publish traces to a specific file, published by a specific insurer, in a specific month. This page explains what we do and, just as importantly, what we will not claim to know.
Since July 2022 the federal Transparency in Coverage rule has required health insurers to publish machine-readable files listing their negotiated in-network rates. These files are public by law and republished monthly. They are also enormous and were built for compliance rather than for reading, which is why almost nobody reads them.
A payer's file lists a rate for every provider whose contract includes a code, not just the clinicians who practice it. Most rate comparisons quietly blend all of them together, which produces a number that is not the market for a therapist.
We report the market for your licence and your payer: psychologists, clinical social workers, licensed counsellors and marriage and family therapists, with prescribers shown separately. We also count each practice once, and exclude facility billing, so a single large group cannot drag the market it is being measured against.
We publish medians with 25th to 75th percentile ranges rather than one "the rate is X" claim, because markets are ranges and a negotiation needs a floor and an ask, not a point.
Every figure carries a grade based on how many providers stand behind it, from high down to very low. Where a payer's file quality or volume cannot support a trustworthy number, the report says so instead of guessing, and we tell you when a figure is directional rather than something to anchor on.
Payers republish monthly, and every campaign is stamped with the month of the files it was built from. If you buy a campaign built on files older than 60 days, we rerun it on current data free.
You hold one number we cannot see: your own contracted rate. Check it against the range we report for your payer, your code and your licence. If your verified rate falls far outside a range we reported with high confidence, tell us. That is a refund and a bug report, and we mean both.
Published rates are what payers disclose, not necessarily what lands after adjustments, and they do not account for your volume, credentials or specialty. This is market information, not legal, billing or contracting advice. Medians describe markets, not any individual contract, and no negotiation outcome is promised. PracticeRates is independent, and not affiliated with or endorsed by any insurer.