APPOINTMENTS AND CANCELLATIONs

The standard meeting time for psychotherapy is 55 minutes. If needed, all requests to change the session timeframe should be discussed with the therapist in advance.

Please remember to cancel or reschedule 24 hours in advance. Cancellations and re-scheduled sessions will be subject to a full charge if NOT RECEIVED AT LEAST 24 HOURS IN ADVANCE. This is necessary because a time commitment is made to you and is held exclusively for you. If you are late for a session, you may lose some of that session time.

BILLING

All clients are required to keep a valid, non-expired, working credit card on file at all times for fees, co-pays, and services, regardless of insurance status. If you are primarily using an HSA/FSA for payments, you will also be required to keep a secondary, backup credit card on file, as these accounts do not always have enough funds for your fees. It is your responsibility to be aware of balances in your financial accounts. Compassionate Roots is not liable for any overdraft fees that may occur from your banking institution as a result of charges for services rendered.

All costs associated with sessions are due at the time of service and will typically be billed and collected every week, through our electronic health record, Simple Practice.  Please be aware it could take up to 72 business hours before Cash and checks will be accepted. Fees for services rendered are non-refundable.

Good Faith Estimates: Compassionate Roots is required by federal law to provide a good faith estimate for all clients who are uninsured, out-of-network, or opt out of using insurance benefits. Our policy is such that we will provide this estimate to you before your first scheduled appointment to ensure there are no surprises with costs related to services rendered at our practice. 

Payment Plans & Collections:  Compassionate Roots reserves the right to suspend services and/or send to collections any unpaid balances in your account for 30 days or more. 

If your card on file is declined for any reason and your account is 30 days overdue, Compassionate Roots will send you a letter and invoice requesting that the balance be paid in full or ask that you set up a payment plan. When your account is 60 days overdue, Compassionate Roots may opt to send your account to collections to recoup your owed balance. 

Compassionate Roots will issue a session invoice and collect payment on the same date of service. This may include any deductible or copay you are responsible for.

If your unpaid balance is sent to collections, you will also be billed for any collection fees. Note: Once a collection account is added to your credit report, your credit score could be damaged for up to seven years.

Payment Disputes: If you dispute a charge from Compassionate Roots after services are rendered, information will be sent to your credit card company or bank to prove services were provided and that you agreed to pay for these services. You will remain responsible for payment for services and any dispute fees charged by your credit card company or bank and/or our electronic health record, Simple Practice. We are always willing to discuss charges if issues or questions arise. Disputing charges through your credit card or bank will result in immediate termination from our practice as the therapeutic relationship will be irreparable. We will refer you to another provider nearest your home of record.

INSURANCE

Our practice is in network with Anthem BCBS and United Healthcare. Verification of benefits is not always accurate. After we receive your Explanation of Benefits (EOB), you may owe more or less than originally quoted. It is your responsibility to understand your insurance plan. If we owe you a refund, we will give you the option to keep this as a credit toward future co-pays or be issued a refund. If a refund is requested, we will issue this via the original form of payment within 7-10 business days.

For in-network clients:  Compassionate Roots will provide you with an estimated cost of services related to co-pay, co-insurance, and/or deductible, which is based on the known contracted rate agreement we have with your insurance company. This is only an estimation. You will be expected to pay the estimated fees at the time of service. After we receive your EOB, the estimated cost may be more or less than originally quoted.

Tele-behavioral health services are billed at the same rate as in-office visits. Insurance companies do not always cover this service. Based on your coverage, this service will work the same as the aforementioned policies, and payment is expected at the time of service.

You reserve the right to opt out of insurance billing. Please notify Compassionate Roots of this decision and we can provide an opt-out form. You will be billed the full rate and payment will be expected at the time of service. If you opt out of insurance billing, you may choose to bill insurance later, but all past sessions will not be reimbursed or re-billed to your insurance company. You will be required to complete an opt-in form before we can resume billing insurance for sessions.

You are responsible for all charges not covered by insurance, including any denials, even after services have been terminated with us. Your diagnosis code or type of therapy may be denied by insurance and you will be responsible for all remaining fees. Insurance does not always cover couples or premarital counseling. Please know that you may be responsible for the provider’s full fee for these services. If you schedule more than one therapy appointment on the same day, insurance will not cover both. If you are seeing more than one provider for individual therapy, insurance will likely not cover all sessions with all providers. Please let us know of any additional therapy appointments you have so we can coordinate care in such a way as to avoid additional out-of-pocket expenses for your behavioral health care, if possible.

If you have a secondary insurance plan, notify Compassionate Roots before services are rendered. You will need to contact your secondary insurance company to complete a Coordination of Benefits (COB) for your provider to bill both insurance plans. Failure to do so will result in your secondary insurance not being billed and you will be responsible for the outstanding balance. We will not be able to retroactively bill for past sessions if you did not execute a COB within 30 days of commencing care.

​For out-of-network clients: Compassionate Roots can provide you with a superbill to file claims on your own. If superbills are requested for ongoing therapy sessions, they will be sent monthly. You will be billed our full rate and reimbursed based on your insurance plan guidelines. You will be expected to pay this fee at the time of service. Your insurance company may not reimburse the full rate for services provided and could reimburse at a Usual/Customary Cost of Reimbursement (UCR) rate that will be unknown to us. Refunds will not be provided for any difference in cost between our rate and your insurance company. 

For self-pay clients: you will be billed the full rate and payment will be expected at the time of service.

A $10.00 service charge will be charged for checks returned for any reason for special handling.​

Rates are guaranteed on a session-by-session basis and are reviewed annually. If our fees are expected to change, we will provide notice by December 1st with an effective date of January 1st of the following year. 

TELEPHONE ACCESSIBILITY

If you need to contact your therapist between sessions, please leave a voice message. Therapists are often not immediately available; however, will attempt to return your call within 24 hours. Please note that Face-to-face sessions are highly preferable to phone sessions. However, if you are out of town, sick, or need additional support, phone sessions are available. If a true emergency arises, please call 911 or go to any local emergency room. This includes thoughts of suicide or homicide.

SOCIAL MEDIA AND TELECOMMUNICATION

Due to the importance of your confidentiality and the importance of minimizing dual relationships, Compassionate Root’s providers do not accept friend or contact requests from current or former clients on any social networking site (Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.). We 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 the therapeutic relationship. If you have questions about this, please bring them up when with your therapist for further clarification.

ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION

Compassionate Roots cannot ensure the confidentiality of any form of communication through electronic media, including text messages. If you prefer to communicate via email or text messaging for issues regarding scheduling or cancellations, your therapist will do so. While your provider may try to return messages promptly, we 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.

TELEMEDICINE

In the state of Indiana, “Telehealth means the delivery of health care services using interactive electronic communications and information technology, in compliance with the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)”, including:

• Secure videoconferencing

• Store-and-forward technology; or

• Remote patient monitoring technology

Between a provider in one location and a patient in another location.  The term does not include:

• Electronic mail

• An instant messaging conversation

• Facsimile

• Internet questionnaire

• Internet consultation”

Telemedicine is broadly defined as the use of information technology to deliver medical services and information from one location to another. If you and your therapist choose to use information technology for some or all of your treatment, you need to understand that: (1) You retain the option to withhold or withdraw consent at any time without affecting the right to future care or treatment or risking the loss or withdrawal of any program benefits to which you would otherwise be entitled. (2) All existing confidentiality protections are equally applicable. (3) Your access to all medical information transmitted during a telemedicine consultation is guaranteed, and copies of this information are available for a reasonable fee. (4) Dissemination of any of your identifiable images or information from the telemedicine interaction to researchers or other entities shall not occur without your consent. (5) There are potential risks, consequences, and benefits of telemedicine. Potential benefits include, but are not limited to improved communication capabilities, providing convenient access to up-to-date information, consultations, support, reduced costs, improved quality, change in the conditions of practice, improved access to therapy, better continuity of care, and reduction of lost work time and travel costs. Effective therapy is often facilitated when the therapist gathers within a session or a series of sessions, a multitude of observations, information, and experiences about the client. Therapists may make clinical assessments, diagnoses, and interventions based not only on direct verbal or auditory communications, written reports, and third-person consultations, but also on direct visual and olfactory observations, information, and experiences. When using information technology in therapy services, potential risks include but are not limited to the therapist's inability to make visual and olfactory observations of clinically or therapeutically potentially relevant issues such as your physical condition including deformities, apparent height and weight, body type, gait and motor coordination, posture, work speed, any noteworthy mannerism or gestures, physical or medical conditions including bruises or injuries, basic grooming and hygiene including appropriateness of dress, eye contact (including any changes in the previously listed issues), sex, chronological and apparent age, ethnicity, facial and body language, and congruence of language and facial or bodily expression. Potential consequences thus include the therapist not being aware of what he or she would consider important information, that you may not recognize as significant to present verbally to your therapist.

MINORS

A parent or legal guardian is required to consent to therapy services for a minor. Compassionate Roots reserves the right to request any legal paperwork outlining custodial agreements. Compassionate Roots will follow any court-ordered arrangement as it relates to mental health treatment and consent as may be described within the legal documentation.

If you are a minor, your parents may be legally entitled to some information about your therapy. Your therapist will discuss with you and your parents what information is appropriate for them to receive and which issues are more appropriately kept confidential.

PAPERWORK FEES

There is a $25.00 per hour fee for any paperwork that you request I complete on your behalf.

Court appearance: There is a charge of $800 per day for court appearances. This includes the cost of preparation, travel time and expenses, waiting for your case to be called, and testimony.

TERMINATION

Ending relationships can be difficult. Therefore, it is important to have a termination process to achieve some closure. The appropriate length of the termination depends on the length and intensity of the treatment. Your therapist may terminate treatment after appropriate discussion with you and a termination process if determined that the psychotherapy is not being effectively used or if you are in default on payment. Your provider will not terminate the therapeutic relationship without first discussing and exploring the reasons and purpose of termination. If therapy is terminated for any reason or you request another therapist, Compassionate Roots 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 four consecutive weeks, unless other arrangements have been made in advance, for legal and ethical reasons, your therapist must consider the professional relationship discontinued.