Outpatient Psychotherapy Policies
When you come in for your initial appointment, more detail about policies will be provided to you in the “outpatient services policies and procedures” form.
Before scheduling an initial appointment or at any point during treatment, feel free to contact me with questions and concerns.
Please plan to come to your initial appointment 10 minutes early to complete the initial paperwork.
Sessions
• Appointments are at a scheduled time
• Appointments are 45-50 minutes long and occur once a week (unless other arrangements have been made)
• If you have an urgent need for an appointment, please make this clear to me.
• Because appointment times are reserved for you, it is important to keep appointments. Occasionally, you may need to cancel or reschedule an appointment.
• Full payment for sessions that you miss is expected unless you provide 24 hours advance notice of a change in plans (or in rare cases in which we both agree that circumstances beyond your control prevented attendance).
Length of Treatment
• Duration of treatment varies widely, from weeks to years.
• Treatment length is a function of a number of factors including: the reasons you are seeking therapy; the nature and extent of your concerns; the history and context of those concerns; and the motivations and goals you bring to therapy.
• While it is advisable to plan together for termination, you have the right to end therapy at any time.
Confidentiality
• All services are entirely confidential. No information can be released to others without your prior written permission.
• The exceptions to confidentiality are:
- when you may physically harm yourself
- when you may physically harm another person
- when a child, elderly, or disabled person is being abused
- when a judge orders my legal testimony
• Occasionally I may consult with other professionals about a case. In such cases, every effort is made to avoid revealing the identity of the client.
Contact Information
• I can be reached at 610-664-6446 x1.
• I am often not immediately available by telephone, but I check voicemail regularly.
• I will make every effort to return your call on the same day you make it, with the exception of weekends and holidays. If I will be unavailable for an extended time, I will provide you with the name of a colleague to contact, if necessary.
• In cases of emergencies, page me by following the directions at 610-664-6446 x2. If you feel that you can not wait for a return call, please contact your family physician or the nearest emergency room and ask for the psychologist or psychiatrist on call.
Fees
• Full payment and insurance co-payments are due at the time of the session by cash or check.
• Please speak to me about fees and payments, insurance companies for whom I am a provider, and reimbursement from insurance companies for whom I am not a provider. (You may be able to get some reimbursement from insurance companies for whom I am not an in network provider. Please contact them for more information).
• Insurance companies for whom I am in network: Aetna, Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield (and affiliated companies), Anthem BCBS, Independence Blue Cross, Personal Choice Independence, Blue Cross Keystone Health Plan East (HMO/POS), Magellan, Medicare, Cigna Behavioral Health, Cigna Healthcare, Geisinger Health Plan, Independence Blue Cross Blue Chip Keystone Health Plan East, Independence Administrators, Amerihealth Administrators, Amerihealth HMO/POS, Amerihealth PPO & CMM, Employer Accounts for Comcast employees, Lowes employees, and Exxon employees, Health Partners CHIP-KidzPartners (Health Partners for children only), US Family Health Plan, Devereux, and Devon Health Services.
• I charge for certain professional services in addition to weekly appointments. You will be informed of such fees in advance.
Professional Records
• I am required by law to keep treatment records.
Minors
• Parents or legal guardians must consent to treatment. In cases of divorced parents with joint custody, both parents must agree to treatment.
• Parents of minors under eighteen years of age have the right to examine their child’s treatment records. Because treatment is most successful when confidentiality is maintained, I often ask parents to agree to receive only general information about their child’s therapy, unless there is a high risk that the child will seriously harm himself, herself, or someone else.
