VA Community Care & CHAMPVA Therapist in Fort Myers, FL

Living Well Counseling sees veterans and military families through VA Community Care and CHAMPVA, at our Fort Myers office and our Cape Coral office and by secure telehealth anywhere in Florida. We are part of the VA Community Care Network through Optum. If you do not have a referral yet, call anyway and we will help you get one started with your VA care team. CHAMPVA covers eligible spouses, children and survivors of certain disabled veterans; we bill it directly. Call (239) 940-7025.

Programs

VA Community Care through the Optum network; CHAMPVA. TRICARE has its own page.

Who

Veterans enrolled in VA health care who are referred to community care; CHAMPVA-eligible spouses, children and survivors

Referral

VA Community Care needs a referral from the VA. No referral yet? Call and we help you request one.

CHAMPVA approval

Not needed for outpatient therapy sessions. Required for inpatient, residential, partial hospitalization and intensive outpatient mental health care, and for drug and alcohol treatment.

Your cost

VA Community Care: we bill the VA; any VA copay is billed by the VA. CHAMPVA: cost share when it is your primary payer, verified before your first visit.

Format

In person in Fort Myers and Cape Coral, and by telehealth throughout Florida

Clinicians with veteran experience

Dr. Vicki Bonham, Angela Velez, Angelica Olmstead and Ann Morris

How VA Community Care Works

VA Community Care lets a veteran enrolled in VA health care see a provider outside the VA when the VA decides that is the right option, for reasons such as distance or wait times. The VA pays. Here is how it works with us.

1. Ask your VA care team. Tell your VA provider, mental health team or Patient Advocate that you want to see a community therapist. They check whether you are eligible and, if so, put in a referral for mental health care. You can ask for Living Well Counseling by name.
2. The VA sends us the referral. It comes through the Community Care Network, which Optum manages for the VA in Florida. We are a network provider, so nothing extra is needed from you.
3. We call you to schedule. You choose the office or telehealth and the clinician, within what the referral allows.
4. You attend, and we handle the rest. We bill the VA. The VA asks community providers to send visit documentation back to your VA care team so your care stays coordinated. If more care is needed after the referral period, the VA can extend it, and we help with that request.

No Referral Yet? Call Anyway

Veterans without a referral are welcome. On that call we cover how to ask your VA provider for a community care referral, whether CHAMPVA or TRICARE applies to your family, and what private pay would look like if you would rather not wait. Some veterans start with private-pay sessions while the referral is processed. That is your call.

How CHAMPVA Is Different

CHAMPVA is a VA health benefit for family members, not for the veteran. It covers the spouse or child of a veteran who has been rated permanently and totally disabled for a service-connected disability, and the surviving spouse or child of a veteran who died from a service-connected disability, was rated permanently and totally disabled at the time of death, or died in the line of duty. In most cases a person who is eligible for TRICARE is not eligible for CHAMPVA.

CHAMPVA has no provider network or referrals. You choose a provider who accepts CHAMPVA, and the provider bills the VA. We accept it at both offices and by telehealth. Outpatient therapy sessions, including individual, family and group therapy, do not need CHAMPVA's approval in advance. Approval is required for inpatient, residential, partial hospitalization and intensive outpatient mental health care, and for drug and alcohol treatment; if your care moves that way, we help with the request. When CHAMPVA is your primary payer, a cost share applies: after a yearly deductible of $50 per person or $100 per family, you pay 25 percent of the allowable amount and CHAMPVA pays the rest, with a $3,000 yearly cap on what you pay. If you have other health insurance, CHAMPVA pays second and in most cases you pay nothing. We verify your CHAMPVA benefits and tell you the cost before your first visit.

How TRICARE Is Different

TRICARE is the Department of Defense health program for active-duty service members, retirees and their families. It is separate from both VA Community Care and CHAMPVA, with its own referral rules and cost shares. We are in network with TRICARE, and the details are on our TRICARE page. If you are not sure which program applies to you or your family, call and we will sort it out together.

What We Treat

Not every veteran who comes to us is here for PTSD. The concerns we see most often are:

• PTSD and trauma, from combat, military sexual trauma or events long before service. See trauma and PTSD therapy and EMDR, a structured trauma treatment with a strong evidence base.
• Moral injury: the weight of having done, seen or failed to prevent something that goes against your own code. It is not the same as PTSD.
• Transition and identity after service: who you are when the uniform comes off, and the flatness that can follow.
• Relationship strain, including the distance that deployments and moves leave behind. See couples counseling.
• Grief, for people lost in service and for losses since. See grief and loss counseling.
• Chronic pain and sleep, which feed anxiety and low mood.
• Anxiety and depression, which may have nothing to do with service.

Our psychiatric nurse practitioner provides medication management by telehealth for adults and coordinates with your therapist and VA team.

Therapists With Veteran and Military Experience

Dr. Vicki Bonham, Angela Velez, Angelica Olmstead and Ann Morris have experience working with veterans and military families. Say so when you call and we will match you with one of them, or browse the full team.

Cost and Authorization

VA Community Care: we bill the VA, and you receive no bill from us. If a VA copay applies, the VA bills it directly. The referral covers a set period of care; we handle the paperwork with the VA.

CHAMPVA: no approval is needed in advance for outpatient therapy. When CHAMPVA is your primary payer, you pay 25 percent of the allowable amount after the yearly deductible, capped at $3,000 a year; with other health insurance, CHAMPVA pays second and you usually pay nothing. We verify your benefits and tell you the amount before your first visit.

Without benefits: a 50-minute session is $175. If cost is a barrier, our nonprofit partner, The Living Well Mission, funds therapy scholarships for people who qualify.

Getting Started

1. Call (239) 940-7025 or send us a message. Tell us whether you have a VA referral, CHAMPVA or TRICARE, or none yet.
2. We verify your benefits, or help you start the referral, and match you with a clinician.
3. You are scheduled at either office or by telehealth; intake paperwork arrives before the appointment.

Frequently Asked Questions

Further Reading

• U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs: Veteran Community Care (VA)
• U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs: CHAMPVA benefits (VA)
• U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs: Getting care through CHAMPVA (VA)
• CHAMPVA Guidebook (VA, PDF)
• National Center for PTSD (VA)

Available at our Fort Myers office, our Cape Coral office, and by telehealth throughout Florida.