PSYCHOTHERAPY POLICIES & FEES

FEES:

Individual & Couples Therapy:

$90 for 55 minute session.

$95 for appointments at 8am or 4pm.

$100 for sessions at 5pm or later.

Group Therapy:

$55 per each two hour wwekly session, paid once month in advance.

All my professional time will be billed for at a $90 rate (prorated at $1.65/minute). This includes report preparation or letters on your behalf for insurance companies, or legal matters; and phone calls (of more than a ten minute duration). Calls after office hours are charged at 150% of usual rate.

For work outside my office, such as seeing clients in the hospital or house calls, I charge my individual rate "portal to portal" -- that is for the time I am out of the office in your behalf.

PAYMENT:

Full Payment due at the beginning of each session. Please make out your check before the session begins. Cash, Visa & MasterCard are also accepted. To make full payment affordable my fees remain 30% lower than most of my colleagues. Due to the fact my fee is already reduced, it will not be open to further negotiation.

Outstanding Balances: I run a "cash practice" and minimize the extra overhead of billing. For this reason I expect outstanding balances, ie. "I forgot my checkbook," or "I forgot we had an appointment," to be made up at the following session. In such instances in which outstanding balances are over 30 days you will be assessed a finance charge of 2%, compounded monthly. You will be billed at the first of each month. There is an $8 re-billing fee for every statement sent out after the first billing. There is also a $15 fee for all checks returned for insufficient funds. After 90 days with no payments or effort to arrange payment, accounts will be turned over to Associated Recovery Systems, Inc. for collections and will impact your credit rating.

If you are seen with a partner for couples counseling, your financial liability extends to your partner's sessions - even if you were not present, or in the event of a "no show".

Insurance:

To fully understand my policies related to insurance companies, please read my Shrink Rap article, "I Quit!", and "Mismanaged Mental Health". Also be sure and read the article, "Eleven Unethical Practices of Managed Health Care"

I will give you a receipt with a copy for your insurance company. Please specify you intend to submit a claim because they require extra information for reimbursement -- including a diagnosis of a mental disorder. Additionally, your insurance may require my providing them with detailed background, including substance abuse & sexuality history. You may understandably elect not to use your insurance to protect your confidentiality or to avoid the "mental disorder" label.

Your health insurance policy is a contract between you and your insurance company. I am not a party to that contract. I would be considered an out-of-network provider, and you will need to inquire as to your benefits in light of this fact. I no longer contract directly with insurance companies as a network provider so I am responsible and accountable only to you. Thus my loyalties are not divided, and there is no conflict of interest.

In the event that you want to pursue obtaining insurance reimbursement for my services, please follow the guidelines outlined at: Insurance Reimbursement.

Usual and customary fees: My practice is committed to providing the best treatment possible at a reasonable rate. For the Denver area my fees run 25-40% below what my colleagues charge, given comparable levels of experience and expertise. You are responsible for payment regardless of any insurance company's arbitrary determination of usual and customary rates.

Records:

Records include identifying information, dates and types of sessions, an assessment and diagnosis, a treatment plan, progress notes, and any consultations or collateral contacts made. My private psychotherapy notes are kept separate, and are further protected from unauthorized access. Your records will be stored safely with attention to your privacy for at least 10 years as required by Colorado Statute. They will only be released with your written permission and direction, and if you were seen in couple or family sessions, all adults present would have to sign the release. It is my policy to not release an entire record, even with your consent. Instead, I may summarize the content related to the request. You will be granted reasonable access to your record, but not my psychotherapy notes. You may request, in writing, an amendment to your record. If you choose to read your record, it is my policy to be present in order to respond to any questions or confusion you may have about the recordings.

Appointments:

At the end of our first session we will make arrangements for further sessions. You can either have the same time and day each week, or if your own schedule does not allow for this we can vary the time and day. Appointments are not available from 11am to 2pm when I break for lunch and go to the gym. I see clients Monday through Thursday. I rarely do evening appointments because I have groups going on two to four nights/week.

If you cannot keep an appointment time please give me 24 hours notice so I can make the time available to others who need to see me. If you miss an appointment without notifying me or cancel with less than 24 hours notice, I will need to charge you my full fee for the time.* Insurance companies do not reimburse for missed appointments.

Phone Calls & Messages:

I strive to promptly return calls but there can be unavoidable delays. I also read and respond to client e-mails sent during weekdays generally the same day. If I am unavailable for a period of several days (such as vacation etc.) I will leave instructions on my voice mail about contacting another licensed therapist. If I anticipate you may be at risk in some way, I will leave information for this back-up professional, but only enough for that individual to handle an emergency.

Unless I am out of town, you may call my cell phone in the event of an emergency, and I will return your call as soon as possible. Please note, I do not answer my cell phone if I am in a session with a another client. I also turn off my phone when I go to bed (usually no later than 10pm). If for any reason you cannot contact me soon enough, please contact the nearest hospital emergency room. For psychiatric admissions and evaluations I recommend West Pines Psychiatric Hospital, 3400 Lutheran Parkway, Wheat Ridge, CO 80033 (303) 467-4000. For addiction recovery issues I suggest you contact CeDAR which is affiliated with the University Hospital. Their admissions phone number is: 720-848-8030.

Notice of Termination:

Most people engaging in therapy can expect the duration to be from three months to a year, either on a weekly or bimonthly basis. Termination will usually be mutually agreed upon, but you are free to terminate at any time. However, in a few special instances I may decide to stop working with you even though you wish to continue. These include a failure to meet the terms of our fee agreement, a need for special services outside of the area of my competency, and prolonged failure to make progress in our work together. Should this occur, the reason for termination will be discussed with you, and you will be helped to make different plans for yourself, including a referral to a more appropriate resource.

You are not obligated to see me any specified number of sessions.* It is important, however, to give me one session's notice. What I want to avoid is a situation where you cancel and then don't reschedule without explanation. A clean ending will be important to both of us.

* This policy differs from that involving a commitment to group therapy. If you become a group member make sure you review the "Group Ground Rules" before starting.

Intake Forms

Last messed with March 21, 2006