Therapy with Humana: Medicare Advantage, Medicare Supplement and TRICARE

Which Humana coverage you have

Humana Medicare Advantage. A private plan that replaces Original Medicare for most of your care. Your card says Humana and usually names an HMO or PPO plan.

Humana Medicare Supplement (Medigap). It works alongside Original Medicare and helps pay your share of the costs. Your red, white and blue Medicare card is still your main card.

TRICARE East, through Humana Military. If you’re in a military family, Humana Military runs TRICARE in the East Region, which includes Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia and Alabama. Your benefits are TRICARE’s, so see our TRICARE therapy guide.

A Humana employer plan. These ended. Humana’s 2025 annual report says it finished leaving the employer group medical business during 2025, including fully insured, self-funded and federal employee plans. If you had Humana through work, you’ve moved to a new plan. Check its network before you book.

Does Humana Medicare Advantage cover therapy?

Yes. Every Medicare Advantage plan has to cover what Original Medicare covers, including outpatient mental health care:

• individual and group psychotherapy
• family counseling when the main goal is your treatment
• psychiatric evaluations and medication management
• a yearly depression screening in primary care
• intensive outpatient programs, covered by Medicare since 2024

Since January 1, 2024, Medicare also pays licensed marriage and family therapists and mental health counselors. That gives Medicare Advantage members more choices, as long as the counselor is in your plan’s network.

What therapy costs: three East Tennessee plans

Humana’s 2026 Summaries of Benefits for its Gold Plus HMO plans in East Tennessee show what a therapy visit costs. These three plans serve the same counties, including Knox, Hamilton, Blount, Bradley, Sullivan, Washington and Putnam.

A few things stand out:

• The $35 copay is the same everywhere you get therapy: a specialist’s office, an outpatient hospital clinic or telehealth.
• Outpatient substance use treatment costs the same $35.
• There’s no medical deductible, so the copay starts with your first session.
• The plans differ on hospital care, not therapy. An inpatient psychiatric stay costs $275 a day for the first five days on H4461-035, $175 a day on H4461-041, and $0 per admission on H4461-040.
• The yearly maximum is the most you’d pay for covered medical care in network. Weekly therapy alone at $35 comes to about $1,820 over a year, just under H4461-040’s $1,900 maximum, so any other care would put you at that plan’s limit.

You still pay your Medicare Part B premium on top of the plan premium.

Other Humana plans and counties charge different amounts. Find your own plan’s Summary of Benefits at humana.com, and look under “Mental health services” for the line “Mental health therapy visits.”

Do you need approval or a referral?

For the three East Tennessee plans above, Humana’s summaries say you don’t need a referral to see plan providers. The plans do require prior authorization for certain items and services, and Humana keeps that list at Humana.com/PAL.

Other Humana plans can differ, especially HMO plans in other areas. Humana also committed to removing about a third of its prior authorizations for outpatient services by January 1, 2026, without saying which ones in the material I found.

The simplest step is to call the number on your card and ask: “Do I need a referral or prior authorization for outpatient therapy with an in-network provider?”

Telehealth

Humana Medicare Advantage plans cover mental health telehealth, including sessions from home. In the East Tennessee plans above, a telehealth therapy visit costs the same $35 as an office visit. Humana’s summaries note that the telehealth they list is in addition to Original Medicare’s telehealth, and that limits on telehealth vary by state.

Since 2022, Humana has also worked with Array, a telehealth practice, to offer telebehavioral care to Medicare Advantage members. The therapist has to be licensed in the state where you are during the session.

If you have a Humana Medicare Supplement

A Medicare Supplement doesn’t have its own network. It pays part or all of your 20% coinsurance after Original Medicare pays, depending on your plan letter.

What matters most is whether your therapist accepts Medicare. If they’ve opted out of Medicare, neither Medicare nor your supplement will pay. Our Medicare therapy guide explains the difference between therapists who accept assignment, those who don’t, and those who’ve opted out.

Open enrollment ends December 7

Medicare’s open enrollment for 2027 runs from October 15 to December 7, 2026. If you’re in therapy and comparing plans:

1. Ask your therapist which Medicare Advantage plans they’re in network with for 2027.
2. Search each plan’s directory for your therapist by name.
3. Compare the outpatient mental health copay in each plan’s Summary of Benefits.
4. Check whether the plan needs a referral or approval for therapy.
5. If you take medication, check the plan’s drug list too.

How to find a therapist in Humana’s network

1. Use Humana’s Find a Doctor at humana.com, choose your plan, and search for behavioral health providers.
2. Then search LunahUP by city. No profile in our four states lists Humana yet, so ask each practice whether it’s in your Humana plan’s network for 2026 and 2027.
3. Ask your primary care office. Many Humana Medicare Advantage members get primary care at practices that can refer them to in-network therapists.

If Humana denies a service

Medicare Advantage plans follow Medicare’s appeal process. Your plan’s Evidence of Coverage explains how to ask Humana to reconsider and how to take it further if you disagree. Your therapist’s office can often help.

Questions to ask Humana

Ask the number on your Humana card:

• “What’s my copay for outpatient therapy, in network and out of network?”
• “Do I need a referral or prior authorization for therapy?”
• “Is [therapist’s name] in my plan’s network for 2026, and for 2027 if I keep this plan?”
• “Does my plan cover marriage and family therapists and mental health counselors?”

The short version

• Humana stopped offering employer health plans in 2025. Most Humana members now have Medicare Advantage, a Medicare Supplement or TRICARE.
• Humana Medicare Advantage plans cover outpatient therapy with a flat copay in network.
• In three 2026 East Tennessee Gold Plus HMO plans, therapy costs $35 a visit in an office or by telehealth, with no deductible and no referral.
• Some services need prior authorization; the list is at Humana.com/PAL.
• Medicare pays marriage and family therapists and mental health counselors since 2024.
• With a Medicare Supplement, your therapist must accept Medicare.
• TRICARE members in our four states use Humana Military for the East Region.
• Medicare open enrollment ends December 7, 2026.