Rates For Services (revised 6/06)

A. Using your insurance and their required codes
B. Services not covered by insurance (and why)

A. Using your insurance and their required codes 

Your insurance may require a co-pay on your part, or only reimburse a percentage of these charges.  Please try to learn in advance, as payment for services (full charge or co-pay) is asked of you on the day those services are provided.  If you're paying the full charge, you'll want to know in advance how much of that is going to get reimbursed by your insurance.  In some cases it could be as little as 50%.  If I contract with your insurance carrier, then I will accept their rates, which may be lower than the rates shown above.  You are only responsible for your share (%, copay) of the contracted rate.

B. Pay for what you use 

 2006 rate: $175 per hour (compare attorneys, accountants)

C. Services not covered by insurance (and how to minimize these costs)

• Handling your questions or concerns between visits -- except for emergencies, which are not charged; 
• Rescheduling established appointments; 
• Contact with your primary care provider as needed;
• Laboratory and other data management (creating flow charts, and records for your review);
• Preparation of reports (lawyers, social security, etc.);
• Copying your record for insurance company review (you will have copies and can do this yourself if you choose);
• Negotiating with your insurance company to arrange payment for services (free at first).  

All of these services are billed at the per-minute rates above.  

 (D). Why are the insurance-code rates higher than the charges/minute rates?

Because dealing with your insurance company adds an additional layer to the process, including:

• negotiating with them over rates;
• dealing with their refusals to pay because some form was not filled out properly;
• credentialing with them, which means a bunch of paperwork, renewed yearly in most cases;
• preparing "treatment plans" for their review, and tracking when those are "due" -- then calling their representatives when something goes wrong with the timing; 
• tracking their payments, or not-payments, and calling their representatives -- again -- to work out what's wrong so that I do get paid for work already done (several months ago); 

and so forth.  You wouldn't believe the number of people involved in this process.  

If you pay for what you use at the time of service, all of this is avoided -- so you ought to pay less, as you're buying a different product.