Queer individuals in Germany are 2.6 times more likely to have mental health challenges. We want to help connect you with LGBTQIA+ experienced therapists.

LGBTQIA+ First!

Are you covered by public health insurance and have been looking for a therapist for a long time? Did you know that you have the right to out-of-network reimbursement? 

Sounds complicated? All it means is that you can start therapy with a therapist who is not usually covered by your health insurance and still have your health insurance pay for your sessions.  

<link>You can read more about this reimbursement here.</link>

You do have to complete a process that can seem a little overwhelming – but don’t worry, we’re here to help! 

Our interactive checklist will guide you through every step of the way.

Therapy reimbursement helper for LGBT+ people in Germany

Find resources and information to help you navigate the German healthcare system, such as our Glossary to boost your confidence with difficult terms.

Resources

Take control of your therapy journey!

Tracker and checklist to help you stay accountable through each step.

Track your progress

Get a visual overview of your path to therapy.

Visualization

Here you can find explanations of important terms that you will encounter on your way to therapy.

If you have statutory health insurance and are in urgent need of psychotherapeutic treatment, but run into walls on the way to a therapy place, you have a legal claim against your health insurance company to have the costs of a private doctor covered.

Reimbursement procedure - Kostenerstattungsverfahren

Those doctors in Germany who have concluded a contract with the statutory health insurance funds and thus bill their services directly to the statutory health insurance funds instead of to the patients. The majority of people insured in Germany have statutory health insurance.

Contract psychotherapist / doctor with health insurance license - Vertragspsychotherapeut:in / Arzt mit Kassenzulassung

A probationary session is purely a type of initial consultation with a therapist. In this session, it can be determined what exactly the subsequent treatment should look like, what type of treatment makes sense and how urgent a consultation is. The consultation report, which is essential for the cost reimbursement procedure, is issued during the probationary session.

Initial consultation / Initial psychotherapeutic consultation / Probationary session - Erstgespräch / Psychotherapeutische Erstberatung / Probatorische Sitzung

This form is required for the cost reimbursement procedure. It is issued by the doctor during the probationary session. You can find a sample of the blank document [here](notion://www.notion.so/LINKLINK). An example of a completed document can be found [here](notion://www.notion.so/LINKLINK).

Form PTV11 - Formular PTV11

The consultation report is a written recommendation for diagnosis, treatment or therapy from one doctor to another. The consultation report is issued, for example, by a psychotherapist after the probationary session and serves as a reference for the private doctor who is subsequently commissioned to provide treatment. Two copies of the consultation report are required for the cost reimbursement procedure: Four copies of the report are used as follows:
* one copy remains with the doctor who prepared the report for documentation purposes
* one copy is sent to the health insurance company. The diagnosis and contents of the report are blacked out.,
* one copy is sent to an expert commissioned by the health insurance company. Personal data such as name is blacked out for anonymization.
* a copy is sent to the doctor who finally carries out the treatment.

Consultation report - Konsilliarbericht

The urgency code is issued by the family doctor, attending neurologist or psychiatrist. It certifies that it is unreasonable for the patient to wait any longer for a psychotherapy appointment. In addition to issuing the actual urgency code, you should make sure that the attending physician also marks "promptly required" and the type of therapy (e.g. "behavioral therapy").

Certificate of urgency / urgency code - Dringlichkeitsbescheinigung / Dringlichkeitscode

The Appointment Service Center (TSS) is part of the statutory mandate of the Associations of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians. It supports patients with statutory health insurance in obtaining psychotherapeutic care (psychotherapeutic consultations, acute treatment and trial treatment). The TSS is sometimes extremely busy and long telephone waiting times of up to 2 hours can be expected. Unfortunately, the TSS staff usually only speak German, so English-speaking people should at best ask a German-speaking friend for help, or alternatively use [this link](link to our guide).

Appointment service center - Terminservicestelle / TSS / 116117

Glossary

Here you can find resources and information to help you navigate the German healthcare system.

Since the introduction of the new psychotherapy guideline in 2017, you must visit a so-called "psychotherapeutische Sprechstunde" or "Erstgespräch", a session that confirms the necessity (indication) of psychotherapy in a guideline procedure. This appointment has to happen in a practice that takes publicly insured clients.

You can find a therapist for an initial consultation in one of the following ways:

Get first consultation

Contact psychotherapists with public health insurance approval. Since you need to prove that timely treatment with psychotherapists with health insurance approval was not possible, log your calls.

Contact public therapists

Make an appointment with your general practitioner (”Hausarzt”) or a psychiatrist and have them fill out a so-called “urgent medical report”.

Visit a GP or psychiatrist

Some health insurance companies, like TK and Mobil KK, now insist that you need to have contacted the Terminservicestelle (TSS), which in theory is unnecessary since they do not mediate any appointments, but you’re still required to show that you have at least tried to get mediation.

Contact TSS

Find a therapist with a private practice who is open to taking part in the reimbursement procedure and get confirmation that they would take you on. 

Contact private therapists

This one is relatively straightforward. Fill in the provided template for the Application for Probatory (”Antrag auf Probatorik”) and make sure to sign it.

Fill in the form

Send all the documents you’ve gathered in the previous step to your new therapist. They will have let you know if they prefer to receive the documents via email or via post. Your therapist will take it from there, adding any other necessary documents and sending everything to your health insurance provider. 

Gather all your documents

Send all the documents you’ve gathered in the previous step to your new therapist. They will have let you know if they prefer to receive the documents via email or via post. Your therapist will take it from there, adding any other necessary documents and sending everything to your health insurance provider.

Send documents

You did it! Now it’s time to wait for your health insurance provider to approve. This can take a few weeks. But don’t worry, they’re legally obliged to grant you this reimbursement.