Can MedPay Cover EMDR Therapy After a Car Accident?
EMDR Therapy & EMDR Intensives in Colorado Springs
If you’re wondering - “Why am I Struggling so Much After a Car Accident?”
The people who contact me after a car accident aren't always the people who have been looking for therapy. In fact, they very often don’t want to start therapy at all.
Typically high functioning and resourceful, they’re used to figuring things out on their own. Throughout their lives, they've handled difficult situations by researching, making a plan, and working hard to solve problems. They often tell me things like:
"I've never needed therapy before."
"This just isn't like me."
"I should be able to get over this."
"I don't understand why I can't just move on."
The frustrating part is that they usually know exactly what they "should" be doing. They know the accident is over. They know they're safe. They know the fear doesn't make logical sense. But every time they get behind the wheel, their body responds as though the danger is happening all over again.
And that’s what eventually prompts the call to start therapy. Feeling unable to drive without high anxiety, or experiencing the need to avoid driving altogether, is incredibly disruptive to life. Clients contact me because it’s not sustainable long-term - they’re struggling to get their family to places they need to be, or having to turn down work opportunities because it’s too stressful to get from place to place, or missing out on the fun of travel and recreation because getting in a car is so triggering.
This isn't a lack of willpower, it's simply a very normal and predictable trauma response. These clients aren't coming to therapy because they're "falling apart." They're coming because their usual strengths aren't solving this particular problem. The same strengths that have served them well throughout life, however, usually allow them to move through therapy efficiently, too.
Once people decide they want help, another question often comes up:
"How do I pay for this?"
What many Colorado drivers don't realize is that their own auto insurance policy may include Medical Payments Coverage, often called MedPay. Depending on the policy and circumstances, those benefits may be available to help cover medically necessary treatment after a car accident, including mental health treatment in some cases.
What Is MedPay?
MedPay is a medical benefit attached to your auto insurance. Unlike liability insurance, MedPay isn't about deciding who caused the accident. Instead, it's designed to help pay for reasonable medical expenses after a car accident, regardless of who was at fault. It can begin paying for treatment right away, rather than waiting months for a liability claim to be investigated or settled.
MedPay is an optional benefit that comes with many Colorado auto insurance policies. Colorado insurers generally include at least $5,000 in coverage unless you decline it in writing, and can include much more. MedPay typically pays first in Colorado before health insurance for auto accident injuries, and may be used to help with deductibles or coinsurance.
To determine what’s included with your policy you can ask your insurer:
Do I have MedPay coverage on my policy?
How much MedPay coverage do I have available?
Does my policy cover medically necessary psychotherapy after an accident?
What documentation do you need from my therapist?
How do I seek reimbursement?
Is preauthorization required?
Benefits will depend on your individual policy, so it’s always a good idea to check with your insurer before accessing services.
Can MedPay Be Used for Therapy?
While many people think of MedPay as covering emergency rooms, imaging, or physical therapy, psychological injuries can also be a legitimate consequence of a serious collision. If you're experiencing high anxiety or panic while driving, intrusive memories, nightmares, or other trauma symptoms after an accident, it's worth checking into whether your MedPay benefits can be applied to treatment.
Many of my EMDR Intensive clients have been able to use MedPay benefits to help cover the cost of treatment. It allows us to being treatment without long delays, complete EMDR in an accelerated time period, and get to a point of resolution within a matter of weeks.
Why Mental Health Treatment Matters After a Car Accident
A car accident can absolutely be a trauma - many people resist the word “trauma,” but I always say a trauma is anything that is especially overwhelming or blindsiding at the time at happens. Intensely overwhelming situations are registered by our innate survival system as a life-threatening event - and car accidents often are life-threatening in reality.
In the face of perceived life-threatening situations, our normal brain and body functions shut down so that our system can prepare all available resources for survival. This means that normal cognitive recall and processing is compromised. The experience becomes “stuck,” as though no time has passed even though you logically know it’s over.
The longer memories stay in this frozen-in-time state, replaying through intense reactions or flashbacks, the more stuck they tend to become. Instead of getting better over time as we typically expect things to do, they can compound because every new experience of anxiety or avoidance when driving reinforces the brain’s association that driving is a threat to survival.
The sooner treatment can start after a car accident, the quicker this cycle can be broken so that the experience becomes just a neutral memory about a past event.
Why EMDR Is Often Recommended After Traumatic Accidents
EMDR is a therapy approach that is highly effective in processing “stuck” memories, feelings, and triggers. It activates your brain and body’s innate ability to process difficult experiences to a point of resolution, rather than just talking and trying to make cognitive sense of an experience that is actually stored and replaying on a nervous system level.
EMDR is highly effective in resolving high anxiety, panic, flashbacks, nightmares, triggers, and more after a distressing incident. Many people are surprised to learn that symptoms which have persisted for months, or even years, can sometimes resolve in just a few hours of focused EMDR processing.
Car accidents are one of the most common issues that lead people to seek out EMDR. The process to resolve trauma following an accident with EMDR is typically efficient and straightforward. In my experience, after just one processing session clients find significant relief; after 2-3 processing sessions most clients report that driving is no longer frightening or triggering.
How I Help Clients Use MedPay for EMDR Intensives
I most often treat car accident trauma in an EMDR Intensive format. While weekly EMDR can resolve issues in months instead of years, an EMDR Intensive can accelerate the process and bring resolution in a matter of days. Because losing the ability to drive without fear is so disruptive to life, the sooner we can address what happened, the sooner life can continue the way you need it to.
If you’re using MedPay, the process of coordinating care with me is simple - we schedule between the two of us, and you submit documentation for reimbursement. Because Intensives are completed in a short timeframe and I schedule them outside of my regular client hours, we can usually get started within a week or two and avoid long wait times.
If you have a personal injury case, I coordinate with your attorney for any documentation that is needed - usually a treatment summary and documentation of payment.
You Don’t Have to Wait to Start Feeling Better
One of the hardest parts of recovering from a car accident is believing that what you're experiencing is "serious enough" to deserve help. Because there may not be visible injuries, many people expect themselves to simply push through the anxiety and get back to normal. But if every drive feels like constantly bracing for another collision, you're not failing… you’re experiencing a very normal response to trauma.
The good news is that trauma after a car accident is very treatable. Whether you choose weekly EMDR therapy or an EMDR Intensive, the goal isn't to help you "manage" driving anxiety forever. It's to help your brain recognize that the accident is over so you can drive, travel, and live your life without constantly feeling on guard.
