No Surprises Act
As of January 2022, the federal government instituted the “No Surprises” Act which impacts all Healthcare practices, including those licensed as Psychologists, Health Service Providers, or credentialed as Art Therapists. Providers are now required to notify clients of their federal rights and protections against “surprise billing.” It requires that we notify you of your federally protected rights to receive a notification when services are rendered by an out-of-network provider, if a client is uninsured, or if a client elects not to use their insurance.
Good Faith Estimate
The No Surprises Act is designed to protect potential clients from forced services and surprise fees, and thus further stipulates that we must provide you with a Good Faith Estimate prior to determining the nature of the work and services to be rendered. The “No Surprises” act is understandably useful in protecting patients from receiving unexpected charges for medical procedures performed by contracted out providers, but is less applicable to this Psychotherapy/Counseling/Coaching/Consultation practice. Notwithstanding this, the Act is considered applicable to outpatient healthcare provision including this practice.
Out of network clinicians, including this practice, regularly inform potential clients of our fees prior to meeting, so unexpected charges rarely occur. Less known ahead of time are both the insurance company reimbursement rates to the client, changes in their policies, or frequency and length of services provided by the practitioner, due to their dependence upon client participation, progress, and achievement of, or changing goals. These elements are unknown ahead of time to any provider, prior to meeting with a potential client.
Application to This Practice
Clients always have choice to be seen by this practice or not. You are urged to contact your insurance company to ask them questions ahead of scheduling any appointment with this practice. Though we are required to provide you with a Good Faith Estimate of the cost of services, this can only be done once we discuss what services you are seeking and the nature of the issues or goals, and the interventions that might be appropriate for the work together. A Good Faith Estimate, that is a fee schedule with worksheet will be sent to you to participate in determining the out-of-pocket costs to you, to inform your decision about receiving services from this practice.
We are including this information on this website, as now required by law, but with the caveat that this practice of psychology, or art therapy, whether involving psychotherapy, counseling, coaching or consultation, will always be clear about fees. Clients who choose to work with this practice understand the unpredictable nature of the process, are informed about, and accept, that this practice does not participate in any health insurance plans.
In order to meet legal obligations to convey this information to prospective clients, the official No Surprises Act and Good Faith Estimate policy download is available, despite it being of questionable relevance to this practice. Feel free to contact this practice if you have any questions.
If you would like to learn more about this practice’s Office Policies, Billing Practices, or Payment information, they can be found under Office Policies and Financial Information pages.