My therapist left my insurance network. Can I keep seeing them?

A: Often, yes — for a defined period, at in-network cost — but nothing happens automatically. California's continuity-of-care statute begins: a health care service plan "shall, at the request of an enrollee, provide for the completion of covered services" by a terminated provider.¹ If you do not ask, you get nothing.

What you can ask for, and for how long

The statute lists the qualifying conditions and attaches a different clock to each:²

• Acute condition — a "sudden onset of symptoms" requiring prompt attention with a limited duration. Covered for the duration of the acute condition. No months cap.
• Serious chronic condition — one "serious in nature" that "persists without full cure or worsens over an extended period of time or requires ongoing treatment to maintain remission or prevent deterioration." Covered for the time needed to complete a course of treatment and to arrange a safe transfer to another provider, not to exceed 12 months from the termination date.
• Pregnancy — its duration; and a maternal mental health condition, with written documentation, not to exceed 12 months from the diagnosis or from the end of pregnancy, whichever is later.
• Terminal illness — the duration, and this one may exceed 12 months.
• A newborn to age 36 months — up to 12 months.
• A surgery or procedure authorised and documented to occur within 180 days of the termination.

Read the serious-chronic wording again, because it is the one that fits most therapy: requires ongoing treatment to maintain remission or prevent deterioration. That is a description of maintenance psychotherapy.

You pay in-network. Cost sharing is "the same as would be paid by the enrollee if receiving care from a provider currently contracting with or employed by the plan."³

The one that catches people: mental health is covered, but not because this statute says so

Section 1373.96 defines acute and serious chronic conditions as "medical conditions" and never mentions mental health except for maternal mental health. The coverage comes from parity: every plan contract issued, amended or renewed on or after 1 January 2021 must cover medically necessary treatment of mental health and substance use disorders "under the same terms and conditions applied to other medical conditions."⁴ Continuity of care is a term and condition. So it applies.

Say it that way when you ask, and cite both sections. A plan representative reading only section 1373.96 may not see mental health in it.

HMO or PPO — the difference is decisive

If your coverage is an HMO or another plan regulated by the Department of Managed Health Care, section 1373.96 applies and it contains no definition of "terminated provider" at all — the term is used throughout and never defined.⁵

If your coverage is a PPO or other insurance product regulated by the Department of Insurance, the mirror statute has the same six categories and the same clocks, but its definitions section says something section 1373.96 does not: "'Terminated provider' means a provider whose contract to provide services to insureds is terminated or not renewed by the insurer or one of the insurer's contracting provider groups. A terminated provider is not a provider who voluntarily leaves the insurer or contracting provider group."⁶

That sentence is why the reason your therapist left matters. On the insurance side, a therapist who quit the network, retired, or closed the practice is outside the statute; a therapist the insurer dropped is inside it. Both statutes were last amended by the same bill on the same day, so the asymmetry is a drafting choice, not an accident.

The other exclusion

Neither statute requires a plan to complete services where the contract ended "for reasons relating to a medical disciplinary cause or reason… or fraud or other criminal activity."⁷ If your therapist's contract was terminated because of a board action, continuity of care is not available. How to check a license and its history →

What the statutes do not answer

Neither section says whether a provider's death is a contract termination that triggers continuity of care. Both are written around a plan or insurer ending a contract, not around the provider ceasing to exist. There is no text to rely on there. What you do have in that situation is a plan's ordinary duty to get you an appointment within the timely-access standard. The 10-business-day rule →

Do this: call the number on your card and say, in these words: "I am requesting continuity of care under Health and Safety Code section 1373.96" — or section 10133.56 if you have a PPO — "for a serious chronic condition. My condition requires ongoing treatment to maintain remission and prevent deterioration." Ask for the request in writing and ask for a decision date. Ask your therapist to write two sentences confirming the ongoing course of treatment; that document does most of the work. If the plan refuses and you think it is wrong, the appeal route is the same one used for any denial. How to file a DMHC complaint →

Sources

1. Health & Safety Code §1373.96(a) and (b)(1). Amended by Stats. 2019, Ch. 776, §1 (AB 577), effective 1 January 2020 — leginfo.legislature.ca.gov.
2. Health & Safety Code §1373.96(c)(1)–(6).
3. Health & Safety Code §1373.96(f).
4. Health & Safety Code §1374.72(a)(1)–(2) — leginfo.legislature.ca.gov.
5. Health & Safety Code §1373.96(n) defines only "individual provider," "maternal mental health condition," "nonparticipating provider," "provider" (by reference to §1345(i)) and "provider group." "Provider" under §1345(i) means "any professional person… licensed by the state to deliver or furnish health care services," and "individual provider" is defined by reference to Business & Professions Code §805, whose definition of "licentiate" expressly includes a clinical psychologist, marriage and family therapist, clinical social worker and professional clinical counselor.
6. Insurance Code §10133.56(e)(4); the six qualifying categories are at §10133.56(a)(1)(A)–(F). Amended by Stats. 2019, Ch. 776 (AB 577) — leginfo.legislature.ca.gov.
7. Health & Safety Code §1373.96(h), referring to Business & Professions Code §805(a)(6).

All sections read on the operative text on 18 August 2026. This page describes the statute; it is not legal advice. Self-funded employer plans are governed by federal law and these California sections do not apply to them — check whether your plan is self-funded before relying on this.