Confidentiality & Privacy Policy

I am very careful about protecting patient confidentiality. I will not share ANY information with your insurance company, employer, security clearance agents, colleagues, or your family members without expressed written permission to do so.  I consider confidentiality to be essential for the trust required for people to open themselves up and be truthful in therapy. 

There are laws which protect the relationship between a client and a psychotherapist so that information cannot be disclosed without written permission.

Exceptions include:

• Suspected child abuse or dependant adult or elder abuse, for which I am required by law to report this to the appropriate authorities immediately.
• If a client is threatening serious bodily harm to another person/s, I must notify the police and inform the intended victim.
• If a client intends to harm himself or herself, I will make every effort to enlist their cooperation in insuring their safety. If they do not cooperate, I will take further measures without their permission that are provided to me by law in order to ensure their safety.

 Cancellation & Payment Policies

Payments: You are responsible for the full, on–time payment of all invoices whether or not you use an insurance company for reimbursement.  If you intend to be reimbursed by an insurance company, you should ask them to send reimbursement checks directly to you rather than to me.  Invoices will have all of the information required by your insurance company. Please let me know if you intend to seek reimbursement from your insurance company I which case you will need a diagnosis code that we can discuss before I prepare your invoice. At the end of each month, I will provide you with an invoice by email unless you request a printed copy. Payments are due on or before the 15th of the following month.  For example, payment for an invoice for the month of February is due on or before March 15th.  Payments should be made by check. 

Invoices will list all scheduled sessions including any sessions cancelled or missed.    
If you require an invoice showing only sessions attended and not including cancelled or missed sessions, a separate invoice can be provided.
 
Cancellations:  If you have scheduled a session and later decide for any reason to cancel that session, you will be charged for that session unless you can reschedule the session to a time either the week before or the week after the cancelled appointment 
or another patient without an appointment takes the cancelled time. Group therapy sessions cannot be rescheduled and absences are charged in full.