Policies and Fees

MISSED APPOINTMENTS POLICY

Appointments are scheduled in advance so that your therapist can prepare and make the best use of your therapy time. When you cannot attend a scheduled session, you must call no later than 24 hours in advance to cancel. Appointments that you miss without calling ahead to cancel or that you miss altogether are very inconvenient and costly. Barring illness or other emergencies, appointments that you do not cancel within 24 hours will be billed to you at $75 per hour. Charges for late cancellations or missed appointments cannot be billed to your insurance company and must be paid in full by you.

PROFESSIONAL FEES, BILLING, AND PAYMENTS

Parkview is a private clinic and does not accept funds from state or federal agencies to subsidize its operation. As a result, we do not offer a variable fee structure based on ability to pay for services. Our usual hourly fees vary between $150.00 & $175.00, depending on your insurance. Your initial session is $200.00.

In addition to weekly therapy appointments, there may be charges for other professional services you may need. We will break down the hourly cost if the work is for periods of less than one hour. Other services may include report writing, lengthy telephone conversations, consulting with other professionals with your permission, preparation of records or treatment summaries, and the time spent performing other services you may request. If you become involved in legal proceedings that require the participation of your therapist, you will normally be expected to pay for all of the professional time involved. This may include preparation and transportation time.

Unless other arrangements are made, your bill is due in full at the end of each month. However, insurance co-payments are due at the time you are seen. If your financial obligation becomes excessive, we will make every effort to arrange for a longer-term payment arrangement and/or help you find more affordable services. Please discuss any concerns you have with your therapist. It is our desire that the Policies and Fees financial obligations you incur as a consequence of treatment do not result in hardship for you. To that end, we will answer any questions you have about your bill as promptly and accurately as possible and keep you informed of your financial obligations.

INSURANCE REIMBURSEMENT

Most insurance companies that offer mental health benefits will reimburse you or us to some extent for services offered. However, the terms and extent of these benefits vary widely and change regularly. Our experience has been that people often either do not know or misunderstand the exact coverage of their insurance policies for mental health services. Currently, medical and mental health benefits are often different within the same policy. We will file your insurance claims for you. If you are seeking payment for services under your health insurance policy, your signed Patient Registration Form allows us to provide such information. We will also provide you with whatever assistance we can in helping you to receive the benefits to which you are entitled. However, you (not your insurance company) are responsible for full payment of our fees. It is thus very important that you find out exactly what mental health services, if any, your insurance policy covers. You should carefully read the section in your insurance coverage booklet that describes mental health, or behavioral health, services. If you have questions about your coverage, call your plan administrator. Of course, we will provide you with whatever information we can based on our experience and will be happy to help you in understanding the information you receive from your insurance company.

We are required to provide a clinical diagnosis. Sometimes, we will be asked to provide additional clinical information, such a treatment plan or summary or copies of your entire clinical record. This may require an additional release of information authorization from you. If you refuse such authorization, your insurance company may deny your claims, and you will then be responsible for paying for services yourself. In such situations, we will make every effort to release only the minimum information about you that is necessary for the purpose requested. This information will become part of the insurance company files and will probably be stored in a computer. Though all insurance companies claim to keep such information confidential, we have no control over what they do with your information once it is in their hands. In some cases, they may share the information with a national medical databank. We will provide you with a copy of any report we submit, if you request it.

Once we have all of the information about your insurance coverage, we will discuss what we can expect to accomplish with the benefits you have and what will happen if they run out before you feel ready to end your sessions. It is important to remember that you always have the right to pay for services yourself, unless prohibited by the insurance contract.

Rev. 10/22