Practice Policies
This page outlines PIPS practice policies. Please review it before scheduling to ensure you align with these policies and feel free to ask any relevant questions.
Appointments and Cancellations
The standard meeting time for psychotherapy is approximately 50 minutes. Requests to change the 50-minute session need to be planned in advance in order for time to be scheduled. Please remember to cancel or reschedule 24 hours in advance. You will be responsible for the entire fee if cancellation is less than 24 hours. This is necessary because a time commitment is made to you and is held exclusively for you. Your clinician will wait for you to arrive for up to 15 minutes after the scheduled start time of your session. If you fail to show or contact your clinician within this 15-minute window, your session will be considered a late cancel/no-show. Two cancellations of a recurring appointment time will result in losing that reserved time. Three cancellations or reschedules in a 90 day period may result in termination of services.
Appointments are typically offered Monday-Thursday in the afternoons and evenings. PIPS reserves the right to reserve evening appointments (3:30, 5, and 6 pm) for patients who schedule weekly appointments. Patients who request monthly or bi-weekly may be required to schedule appointments during afternoon hours.
The practice’s standard rate for a 50-minute therapy session is $175 unless otherwise agreed upon. The first session, also called the intake, costs $225. Contact outside of sessions and services such as letter writing are billed in five-minute increments, each five-minute increment costing $17.50. These rates are subject to change periodically, and are reviewed yearly. Patients are required to keep a valid credit card on file through the practice’s electronic health record system. If using an HSA card, patients required to keep a back-up card on file as well. Cards are charged the day of the session, and may be charged before the session begins. Patients who do not pay their balance promptly forfeit future therapy sessions; balances over $350 will automatically cancel all future appointments. Accounts with a balance not paid after 30 days may be sent to collections. Any returned checks will incur a $10 fee for special handling. PIPS does not provide refunds for services. A fee of $75 is required for record preparation. Any legitimate charges via credit card that are disputed by the patient, the patient's family, or a person paying for the patient's treatment will cause immediate termination of services, and require the balance be paid via check, including processing fees. By consenting to treatment with Perceptive Insights Psychological Services, you agree to abide by our financial policies. There are circumstances under which a reduced fee arrangement may be necessary for a time. Each clinician at our organization has the ability to determine, collaboratively with you the patient, if a reduced fee arrangement is an option. Perceptive Insights Psychological Services reviews its fee structure annually and reserves the right to change fees within reason as necessary. If you, the patient, are not paying for your own care, we require the patient to sign a release of information for us to speak with the payor about billing issues only. The payor will also be required to sign a separate credit card authorization form giving permission to charge for any patient financial responsibility, including late cancellation and no show fees.
Financial Policy
Superbills and Out of Network Information
PIPS does not accept insurance. Our electronic health record system automatically sends out superbills each month. Superbills are the document patients can use to submit to their insurance company for out of network reimbursement. It is the patient’s/guardian’s responsibility, not those of Perceptive Insights Psychological services, to know and understand your insurance plan, benefits, and requirements for out of network submissions. Superbills will contain the patient’s name, the parent/guardian’s name (if applicable) address, billing information, date of birth, diagnosis code or codes, practice information, and CPT codes, which are used to indicate the type of session or service provided. Some insurance companies may require additional minor documentation, such as a W-9, which PIPS will provide. PIPS is unable to provide more extensive documentation to insurance companies, contact insurance companies on behalf of patients, and does not participate in single case agreements at this time. PIPS cannot be held liable or responsible for any non-payment or clawbacks that insurance companies may perform.
If you decide to submit for out of network reimbursement, your insurance company may request a copy of your records in order to approve reimbursement. PIPS is not responsible for writing notes or keeping records to insurance company standards and cannot be held liable or responsible if insurance companies deny payment based on this.
Telephone Accessibility
If you need to contact me between sessions, please send me an email or leave a message on my voicemail. I am often not immediately available; however, I will attempt to respond within 72 hours. I am unavailable between the hours of 9 pm to 9 am. Please note that virtual sessions are preferable to phone sessions. However, in the event that you are out of town, sick, or need additional support, phone sessions are available. Text contact is available on a very limited basis, should be limited to scheduling only if the patient is unable to use the patient portal, and patients must use the Spruce app for communication. Therapy should not be conducted via text message; if you require urgent attention we may be able to arrange an urgent session, but I cannot guarantee availability. Scheduling, cancelling, or changing appointments should be done during your therapy session or through the patient portal. If an emergency situation arises or you are in danger of harming yourself or others, please call 911, go to your nearest emergency room, reach out to your emergency contact person, call the suicide hotline at 1-800-273-8255 or text HOME to 741741.
I cannot ensure the confidentiality of any form of communication through electronic media, including text messages. Scheduling and/or changing appointments should be done through the patient portal. While I may try to return messages in a timely manner, I cannot guarantee immediate response and request that you do not use these methods of communication to discuss therapeutic content and/or request assistance for emergencies. Patients are strongly encouraged to use the confidential and HIPAA compliant app, Spruce, to communicate with their clinician, and any therapeutically relevant or sensitive information should be discussed during sessions only.
Electronic Communication
Social Media and Telecommunication
Due to the importance of your confidentiality and the importance of minimizing dual relationships, I do not accept friend or contact requests from current or former clients on any social networking site (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.). I believe that adding clients as friends or contacts on these sites can compromise your confidentiality and our respective privacy. It may also blur the boundaries of our therapeutic relationship. I reserve the right to search your name and put a block on your social media account in order to maintain privacy should either of our respective social media presences warrant this action. If you have questions about this, please bring them up when we meet and we can talk more about it.
Internet Searches
At times, PIPS may conduct internet searches on patients before beginning treatment or during treatment. If you have any questions regarding this practice, please discuss them with me.
Minors
If you are a minor, your parents or legal guardians may be legally entitled to some information about your therapy. I will discuss with you and your parents what information is appropriate for them to receive and which issues are more appropriately kept confidential. The age of consent for medical treatment varies from state to state. In the state of Pennsylvania, it is 14 years of age.
Litigation Policy
Active litigation, such as custody disputes, can be detrimental to the therapeutic relationship and can hinder a clinician’s ability to treat the patient as litigation often involves full disclosure of confidential information. Therefore, it is agreed that should you (the patient or parent/legal guardian of the patient) or your child become involved in any legal proceedings, you, your attorneys, or anyone acting on your behalf will not subpoena Perceptive Insights Psychological Services’ records or any Perceptive Insights Psychological Services clinician or employee to provide a deposition, testify in court, or engage in any other legal process or proceeding.
If a patient or legal guardian does require a Perceptive Insights Psychological Services clinician to appear in court/deposition, the fee for court appearances is $3,600 per day (based on $450 per hour) in the event of subpoenas, depositions, or courtroom appearances with a minimum payment of $5,000. This cost covers clinician preparation, preparation of documentation, costs incurred by cancelling other patient appointments and services, court/deposition appearance fees, review of records, and administrative fees.
Recording
Both parties agree that recording will not occur during any interaction, therapeutic or scheduling. Patients found to have recorded sessions or interactions will be terminated effective immediately, and may be subject to litigation.
Termination
Ending relationships can be difficult. Therefore, it is important to have a termination process in order to achieve some closure. The appropriate length of the termination depends on the length and intensity of the treatment. I may terminate treatment after appropriate discussion with you and a termination process if I determine that the psychotherapy is not being effectively used, if you are in default on payment, or if you or a friend/family member threaten my physical or emotional well-being, or the physical or emotional well-being of my friend/family member or therapy dog. I will not terminate the therapeutic relationship without first discussing and exploring the reasons and purpose of terminating unless in the above described situations. If therapy is terminated for any reason or you request another therapist, I will provide you with a list of qualified psychotherapists to treat you. You may also choose someone on your own or from another referral source. Should you fail to schedule an appointment for three consecutive weeks, unless other arrangements have been made in advance, for legal and ethical reasons, I must consider the professional relationship discontinued. Patients who cancel, late cancel, or no-show two or more appointments in a 90 day period may be provided with referrals and discharged from the practice.
Inclement Weather
As Perceptive Insights Psychological Services is a fully telehealth practice, inclement weather does not typically cause us to close. If weather impacts virtual communication, I will do my best to send you an email if our session needs to be cancelled. Otherwise, please default to assuming your session is still scheduled unless a severe weather event causes disruption in internet access. If this does occur, we may move to a phone session if necessary.
Administrative Assistants
Our practice reserves the right to employ administrative assistants. Administrative assistants may be responsible for following up on billing concerns, responding to non-clinical emails, and for sending out statements, superbills, invoices, and other documentation you may request. An administrative assistant may also call you to cancel or reschedule an appointment if your clinician is ill or if an emergency has occured. Administrative assistants may have access to your name, address, phone number, date of birth, dates of service, billing documentation (superbills, invoices, etc.) and payment history. Administrative assistants do not have access to clinical data, chart notes, or progress/process notes.
Telehealth Sessions
As of 2023, Perceptive Insights Psychological Services no longer offers in-person sessions. All sessions will occur via telehealth. For telehealth sessions, patients are required to be in a quiet space, alone. Sessions will be cancelled and not refunded if you are in a moving vehicle or with other people who could overhear your session. These measures are taken for patient safety and to ensure the confidentiality of your therapy session.
Emergency Contacts
You agree to fully complete all emergency contact information documentation and provide the name and phone number of someone I can easily reach should you be in crisis. You agree to inform this person of my name and phone number, and have them input this information into their phone in the event I need to get in touch with them. You also agree to share your location with me if it is not readily obvious at the beginning of each telehealth session to ensure I can direct emergency services to your location in the case of a crisis.
Please feel free to ask any questions you may have about the above information during a free, 15-minute consultation call. To schedule a consultation and secure your intake appointment, please reach out.