CONFIDENTIALITY:
Your therapy sessions are
confidential. No information about you will be discussed with anyone
without your written permission. However, California state law requires
exceptions to this rule in the following situations: (a) child abuse or
neglect; (b) elder abuse; (c) a threat to the life of another person.
Confidentiality may also be broken if you are in imminent danger of
harming yourself or if you are gravely disabled (i.e., unable to provide
food, clothing or shelter for yourself).
WILL MY INSURANCE PAY FOR MY SESSIONS?
Some
plans will reimburse for my services, so you may want to check with
yours to see if they will cover individual psychotherapy with a Licensed
Psychologist of your choice. I request payment at each session or can
set up a monthly payment schedule, but I am happy to prepare a monthly
statement for you to submit to your insurance company.
HOW LONG IS A THERAPY SESSION?
A typical therapy session for individuals is 50 minutes, for couples 90 minutes and longer.
WHAT IS THE FEE FOR THERAPY?
Fees
for therapy sessions are discussed and agreed upon by the therapist and
client prior to the first session. Fees are due at each session,
unless otherwise arranged. Please write out your check before the
beginning of your session. This will better allow you to utilize the
hour.
MY CANCELLATION POLICY
My cancellation policy is as
follows: a minimum of 48 hours’ advance notice of cancellation of your
appointment is required. Several days or a week is requested. Full fee
will be charged for missed appointments without the minimum of 48
hours’ notice. Cancellations must be made by phone.
MEDICATION:
Psychologists
do not prescribe medication in the state of California. However, if
over the course of therapy it is assessed that medication might be
beneficial, I can help you find an appropriate psychiatrist. If you are
currently taking medications, we can discuss this during the initial
appointment.
MANAGED CARE:
As we are all are discovering, the
managed care system often does not give consumers what they want or
need. Managed care's primary focus is on cutting costs and raising
profits; its concerns about ethics and quality of care are often
secondary.
Some reasons NOT to use Managed Care:
* True privacy and confidentiality means sharing sensitive, personal
information with a single, trusted professional chosen by the patient.
Managed care usually requires sharing private information with several
people who are not chosen by the patient, such as gatekeepers and
utilization reviewers, and storing it in files accessible to hundreds of
employees.
* Managed care sometimes claims to provide all
mental health services when it offers only brief therapy — a short-term
treatment not effective for many concerns.
* A utilization
reviewer’s decisions may overrule the decision of the professional who
is conducting the treatment. However, the reviewer’s decision often is
based upon limited information and/or a too-brief discussion of a case
with the treating therapist.
* Medical ethical codes require
that health professionals avoid and minimize conflicts of interest
regarding their primary obligation to the patient’s welfare. Managed
care, on the other hand, does just the opposite. Professionals may avoid
dealing with important long-term issues or cut therapy short because
managed care prefers to refer new patients to therapists with a record
of short-term (less expensive) treatment.
* Managed care
often fails to inform patients of treatment alternatives outside of the
plan. This failure to inform serves the purposes of the managed care
company because patients who do not know other treatment is possible,
are more likely to report satisfaction with the managed care treatment.
Unfortunately, this failure to inform also undermines the patients'
control, because the patient loses the choice to self-pay for the
preferred treatment.
* Medication is frequently presented as
complete treatment. In fact, psychotherapy, either instead of or in
combination with medication, is a better treatment than medications
alone.
* Patients who are sent to psychotherapy are usually
told that ultra-brief therapy is the treatment of choice, and if they
don't improve, they are told that there are no realistic alternatives.
The reality is that longer-term psychotherapy is a more effective
treatment for many presenting problems. Many people find it so helpful
that they will decide to self-pay for longer-term, depth psychotherapy.