Want to Save Money on Consultations?  10 Tips to Find Insurance Answers Online

By Barbara Griswold, LMFT (August 29, 2025)

Many of you who have consulted with me over the years are impressed by my ability to answer your questions about insurance or billing.   And while I certainly bask in the glow of your warm admiration, the truth is, I’m a bit of a fraud.  Because many of my answers have come from a quick internet search.

Yes, the internet shouldn’t always be trusted for the right answer.   There is a lot of misinformation and conflicting information out there.  And obviously, some issues are more complex, where consultation is absolutely needed.  But you might be surprised how often the answer to a straightforward question can be found online, if you know how to search for it.

Let’s take an example.  A therapist wanted to know if his client could use his wife’s Health Savings Account (HSA) to pay for therapy.  Great question. So, after a quick internet search, I was able to come up with articles that addressed how HSAs work, and whether a client could use a spouse’s HSA (in case you are interested, the answer was, “yes, in most cases”).

While the clinician was happy to get an answer, I couldn’t help but wonder if, instead of answering questions for therapists, I should be teaching them to research the answers themselves.

It made me think of the old proverb: “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”

So, what follows is my attempt to “teach you to fish,” by sharing a few online research tips.

[Note: My apologies in advance to those of you who will find this terribly basic, but some of us are more tech-savvy than others.]

10 online research tips

1. Be wary of online forums that are open to non-experts, like Reddit and Facebook groups. While these often have helpful information, there is also a lot of inaccurate information shared.
2. Check my articles page here to see if I’ve covered your issue in the past, or check my list of courses to see if it is a topic I cover.
3. Type your question (or a few key words) into your search engine (ex. Safari, Google, Firefox). For the example above, I typed in the full question: “can my client use his wife’s HSA.”  But I could have just entered “use wife’s HSA,” or simply “spouse and HSA” to get the same article.
4. If you receive an AI-generated answer, don’t trust the information unless it can be verified from a reputable online source.
5. When given a list of possible articles, the top ones may be labeled “sponsored.”  Someone has paid for these to appear at the top, and they may not be the best resource.   Keep scrolling.
6. Get verification. Found a good resource? Search for a second article that backs it up.
7. Consider the source, and look for biases. Research the author or source.  
8. Check the date. Older resources may have out-of-date information.
9. Bookmark a few often-used websites. For example, to research
   1. Place of Service Codes: click here
   2. CPT codes: click here
   3. Diagnosis codes: Go to icd10data.com. In the white search bar, type the name of the diagnosis or code.  On the resulting list of possible matching codes, if a code has a green triangle, it is billable.  If red, it is not billable.
10. Can’t find the answer to your question online? Are you realizing that your question is more complex than you thought?  Maybe it’s time to get a consultation.  Check out my Practice Coach Referral list – click here.