Please review our payment policy before continuing…
Peaceful Living Counseling & Professional Services do not accept insurance at this time. Therefore, all clients at our practice are self-pay. We accept Health Savings Accounts (HSA) & Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) through employers. Our hourly coaching, anger management, and counseling sessions are $65 per 50 minutes. Family and couple’s sessions are $85 per 50 minutes. Consultation services are $100 per hour. There is a surcharge of $10-20 for transportation to your residence or community for mobile counseling or coaching. We believe services should be affordable to everyone, therefore, we have a sliding fee scale for clients who qualify. We maintain one sliding scale time slot per week. Please contact us for more information if you are interested in exploring whether you qualify for the sliding scale. Payment of fees is expected at the time of each appointment unless other arrangements have been made with your therapist. We request that payment is made before your session begins. We accept cash, check, and all major credit cards. A $35.00 service charge will be charged for any checks returned.
Benefits of Private Pay
Paying privately may be a better choice even if you do have health insurance. Most clients seek therapy to improve relationships or transition through “rough patches,” but to an insurance company review board, these are not acceptable reasons. To be approved for therapy sessions, the therapist must make a case that therapy is “medically necessary” which includes accentuating the problems the client is experiencing and labeling the client with a mental illness. This is often required after the first visit, and then becomes part of the client’s permanent health record.
Your mental health records won’t be used against you. Did you know that your health records may limit your ability to qualify for health or life insurance or require that you pay substantially higher premiums in the future? The personal details of therapy are often entered into a database called the Medical Information Bureau (MIB) by your insurance company. The medical information on over 16 million people is currently housed in this database. Other providers, insurance companies, and even non-medical services like personnel departments may have access to this information for the purposes of evaluating you.
Your confidentiality will not be compromised. Our commitment to care for our clients includes a desire to maintain their confidentiality and privacy. To be reimbursed by an insurance company, our practice would have to label you with a diagnosis and submit frequent updates on symptoms and what is happening in therapy.
You (not a managed care panel) are making decisions about your treatment. Many insurance companies provide payment only for certain approaches to therapy (short-term and problem-focused) and many others won’t pay for family therapy, even when the client is a child and the parents are vital to the therapeutic process. Obviously, it is in the best interest of the insurance company to pay as little as possible for services, work only with the same group of providers rather than a broad range of specialists and to end therapy as quickly as possible. None of their motives address the best interest of the client.
You may save money in the long run. Your insurance plan most likely includes a co-pay and then covers only a percentage of the therapist’s fee which means you would be paying cash for a portion of the therapy anyway. You might be surprised to find that the difference between private pay and insurance co-pays are not that much more. Therapy will ultimately save you money in the long run: less money spent on stress-related illness, fewer problems at home or with your child’s school behavior which may result in less time off from work.
You can set your priorities for what is most important. Therapy has the potential to create lasting change and to avert more serious problems later on. Consider making the choice to adjust your budget to include this important service for yourself or your child. If you choose to work with our practice, you will find that our rates are very reasonable, affordable, and cost-effective if you do not have to drive a long distance, and not much more than a typical copayment.
In summary, here are good reasons to pay privately for therapy:
- You choose the therapist best suited to your needs rather than the insurance company telling you who to see.
- You have flexibility in the type of therapy, who to include in the therapy session and the length of services.
- You will have complete confidentiality. Your records will not be shared with anyone without your permission. In fact, no one else will know you are even in therapy unless you tell them!
- You won’t have to worry that your health records will be included in the MIB and possibly create problems for you or your family in the future.
- You will be able to stay with your therapist even if your insurance plan coverage changes.
Appointments Cancellation Policy
Clients are responsible for keeping all scheduled appointments. We do utilize an electronic management record system that generates notifications of upcoming appointments, per your request. Please remember to cancel or reschedule 24 hours in advance. You will be responsible for the entire fee if cancellation is less than 24 hours.
Regular and consistent attendance is required in order to make progress towards goals and to meet with success in treatment.
Thank you in advance for your cooperation regarding this policy.
All payments can be made in person (processed securely through Square) or online (processed securely through Stripe). Once the intake paperwork is completed through our secure database, you will receive an invoice, once the session is paid, you can then schedule your first appointment with your therapist.