Using counselling benefits before your plan year ends

The date of the session decides the year

Extended health plans count a paramedical claim against the maximum for the period in which the service was provided. On a calendar-year plan, a session on 30 December uses this year’s maximum and a session on 5 January uses next year’s, even if both receipts are submitted on the same day in January.

So a balance left on this year’s counselling maximum can only be used by sessions held before the plan year ends. It cannot be used by submitting a January receipt early, or a December receipt late.

Claim deadlines are a separate date

The deadline for submitting a claim is not the end of the plan year, and it is set plan by plan. Pacific Blue Cross says the annual deadline for submitting eligible claims differs by policy and is in the plan booklet or the member profile, and that claims for services earlier in the year do not necessarily have to be in by 31 December.

The Public Education Benefits Trust, which covers many BC school-district employees, asks for extended health claims by 30 June or 31 December of the year after the expense, depending on the district’s policy, and within 90 days of leaving the plan. Other plans allow far less time. Submitting each receipt soon after the session avoids the question.

Calendar year or anniversary year

Many plans reset on 1 January; some run on an anniversary year, which turns over on the date the employer’s policy renews or on another date the plan sets. On an anniversary-year plan, 31 December means nothing, and the date that matters is in the booklet.

If you are covered under two plans, yours and a spouse’s, each runs on its own year and its own deadline. Coordination of benefits lets the second plan pay what the first did not, which matters most at the end of a year when one maximum is nearly used.

Student plans have their own year

A students’ society health plan runs on the plan year the society sets, which is often tied to the academic year rather than the calendar. The counselling maximum resets on that date, not on 1 January. Counselling for university students covers student plans in more detail.

Health spending account or paramedical maximum

A paramedical maximum is the counselling line in the plan itself, and an unused balance there generally does not carry over. A health spending account is different: some carry an unused balance forward one year. But an HSA pays only expenses the CRA accepts as medical expenses, and the CRA’s list of authorized medical practitioners has no counsellor entry for British Columbia, so ask the administrator whether it will accept a Registered Clinical Counsellor’s receipt before relying on it. A wellness or lifestyle spending account is broader and can usually fund counselling, as a taxable benefit.

Community health workers: the $1,000 mental health benefit

From 1 January 2026, members under the community health collective agreement (the Community Bargaining Association) have a Mental Health and Wellness Benefit on their Pacific Blue Cross extended health plan, with a combined maximum of $1,000 per calendar year. Registered Clinical Counsellors are among the eligible practitioners, with psychologists, social workers and marriage and family therapists.

Two details from the BCGEU’s summary: the benefit is for members only and does not extend to enrolled dependents, and each visit is paid up to Pacific Blue Cross’s reasonable and customary limit, subject to coinsurance. Because it is a calendar-year maximum, a 2026 balance is used by sessions held by 31 December 2026.

What a remaining balance covers here

At this practice’s individual fee of $140 for 50 minutes, $300 left on a plan covers 2 whole sessions and $600 covers 4, if the plan pays the full fee. Many plans cap each visit or pay a percentage, which leaves part of every session with you and changes the count; the cost estimator does the arithmetic with your plan’s own numbers.

This practice is pay-and-submit: you pay by card at booking and get a receipt carrying the counsellor’s registration number, which is what the insurer needs.

A free 30-minute consultation comes first

The first conversation is a free 30-minute consultation by video. Nothing is charged for it, so it uses none of your maximum, and it settles whether the fit is right before any paid session is booked.

The calendar shows real open times. See the consultation calendar.