Quote:
Originally Posted by Perna
One has to pay for one's time, whatever the rate the therapist charges. If your insurance dropped her and/or she dropped them, etc. because they don't pay well, that happens. But if you use a lot of time outside the therapy hour, that has to be paid for too. Do you have a co-pay (in addition to what your insurance pays)? Insurance paperwork is a big pain/additional time factor for therapists, lots of therapists don't take any insurance anymore because of it costing them so much time they don't get reimbursed for.
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I've offered before to pay per e-mail, bc they are NOT part of the therapy hour, but shes always refused setting up a payment plan for that. I do not have any copay, what they pay her ($87.50) is just what they pay her.
This was our conversation:
T: So, I'm hearing you say that you can't afford the session fee of $120 and if that's the case then this is our wrap up session.
M: Why can't you keep it at $75, like my insurance was paying?
T: That isn't what I was getting-they did for a little while, but then they gave me more, but, um, the fact that they were underpaying me by half doesn't mean I should charge all my clients such fees.
M: I'm not saying you should charge all your clients those fees, I'm not all your clients.
T: Yeah....you AREN'T. And you know what? My other clients- they get the time face to face that they pay for, with the session fee that I offer them. You on the other hand get time from me almost every single day. You cross boundaries. You crossed the boundary with the texting. I can't trust that you would...you would keep boundaries. I'm not willing to offer a lower fee. You and I had contact every single day from last...Saturday (the day she emailed to tell me my insurance wouldn't pay anymore). Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. And you want to pay me $75 for this?
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She also said it would be best to find a new therapist bc I shouldn't have to struggle to pay her fee, bc it would cause more stress for me, but that if I can pay her session fee shes happy to continue seeing me and she would hope I can figure out a way to make use of the time regardless who is paying and how much.
Then I asked if the ability to pay wasn't an issue, if she was still able to get her rate of $87.50 a session, (not $120) would she still be willing to see me, or would she prefer to give that spot to a cash client able to pay her full $120 fee.
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After all this I told her my insurance would still pay, my insurance called her and said the clinical director approved still paying her, and she said she has to think about it, if she wants to engage in a weird contract with my insurance (if it's worth it.) My regular session is on Monday and she hasn't called me back yet to say yes she'll use the insurance or no, we've had our final session.