Quote:
Originally Posted by amandalouise
this thread caught my eye because setting new limits on this very thing (emailing, texting canceling sessions if receiving emails and texts and regular mailings) is exactly what a few treatment providers in my location are going through...my own therapist had limits right from the beginning so for me it isnt a major issue. but with others I know itis an issue.
short version here in my location treatment providers have to bill for taking time through emailing, texting, and what is now called snail mail. insurance plans require this billing to be under two categories... advocacy or therapeutic session. then you add in that insurance companies budget so much per person covered. (either number of sessions usually 52 therapy sessions per year, or number of credits per service per fiscal year by treatment providers)
heres how it works in my location...
say I get 52 therapy sessions on the insurance plans. thats enough sessions for a session once a week. my treatment provider has to bill insurance for any emails that I send her as equal to a therapy session. if I want to have 52 face to face therapy sessions then I cant send an email. if I send an email that subtracts one face to face therapy session because the email is billed to insurance as a therapy session.
therapists most times have to bill insurance for the time that they are face to face in a therapy session plus any time that they spend on things like reading emails, reading mail sent the regular way.
how I keep track of things is that I have a small note book when I have sent an email or letter through the mail or attended the session face to face. this way as the end of the fiscal year I know how many more sessions or emails I have available. for every email it knocks out a face to face session billing wise.
Im wondering if maybe this is why the therapist is saying if you send her an email she has to cancel your next session.
suggestion maybe you can ask her if she has to bill for her time reading and dealing with the issues in the email as if it was a face to face therapy session. then maybe you and she can come up with some sort of arrangement where you can send so many emails and have so many face to face sessions, maybe alternate one session then an email then a session then an email. this way billing wise it will even out.
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I'm sure you're attempting to be helpful by describing your experience of how things are billed in your location, but it really seems to me that if this is indeed how things work in your location it seems more than a little absurd. I timed myself reading your email. It took me 1 min. 3 seconds. Personally, I think that any T that charges or counts an email, similar to the length of yours, as equivalent to one of the 52 sessions a client is permitted on his/her insurance plans the T is committing something equivalent to fraud. Even if the T took the time to compose a lengthy and well crafted response, that would mean that the therapist would have to spend another 58 min. 57 seconds on the email! I don't know about you, but even when I'm taking my time to write an email, it never takes that amount of time. If this kind of billing practice is going on in the T's office across the U.S., I think the insurance companies need to be looking into things. Jeesh, no wonder our insurance plans here in the U.S. are hitting the stratosphere. Sounds like bill padding to me.
OP, I'm sorry you're getting dinged by your T for emailing. I have no problem with a T putting a limit on my emailing. But he/she needs to be upfront about it from the very beginning of the therapy experience. For example: A T saying, "I can't read and respond to lengthy emails, but I'm fine with you sending one email a week. I'll let you know that I've read and received it and we'll discuss it in session." Or "I'm sorry but I'm unable to read and respond to emails, but if there is an emergency, please call and leave me a message, I will get back to you." If a T needs to change the rules midstream, I need him/her to DISCUSS it with me like an adult. I'd like to hear some suggestions from the T on how things might change and I'd like her to listen to my thoughts on the subject and my suggestion on how things can be handled. In my world, it needs to be a negotiation with both parties being able to express how they feel about the changes.
From my perspective, any T threatening to cancel my next session because I've called or emailed too much is treating me like an infant. Example: "Because you were late getting home last night, you're grounded for a week." This kind of thing would NOT be helpful in my book and it would tell me that the T was inexperienced or lacking in therapeutic skills. I do understand that it's hard to leave a T once you feel attached, but the thing you have to realize is that if she keeps doing things like this, you'll be in for even more heartache and hurt in the future. I'm sorry you have to go through this.