My 22-year old niece just started therapy with my therapist’s colleague. This therapist does not take my niece’s insurance so my sister offered to pay the fee for the therapy.

I made the initial call to the therapist for my niece. The therapist told me that she charges based on a sliding fee scale range from $80-$150. My sister was to call this therapist to discuss the amount to be paid. Well, that didn’t happen in time so the therapist had my niece make out a check for the max of $150, plus $30 for set up of a new account and file.

My sister called the therapist to discuss the fee, finally. The therapist told my sister that she charges a standard fee of $150 but a sliding fee scale option is available. Different than what she told me initially. Her sliding fee scale ranges from paying $80/session if annual income is $20,000 or less, up to $150/session if annual income is $85,000 or more.

I read the therapists payment fee info sheet and she sounds money hungry the way she charges for every single thing but that’s not really the point of this post. Ok, seriously though, who deducts time from session in order to run a credit card through a cell phone card reader?

Back to the point… whose annual income should the fee be based on – my niece’s or my sister’s? I think my niece’s. She’s an adult client. It doesn’t matter where she gets the money to pay for her therapy, does it?