Policies
The
following is a detailed explanation of the policies and procedures of my practice. I am happy to answer any questions you might have.
Appointments
Your appointment time is reserved for you. It is your
responsibility to notify me at least 24 hours in advance if you are unable to
attend. Cancellations of appointments less than 24 hours in advance and
“no shows” are subject to full fee for the appointment time. If you arrive
more than 15 minutes late for an appointment without notifying me, I will
consider the appointment canceled and charge for the session.
Exceptions to this policy may occur in the case of unforeseen
emergencies or serious illnesses/injuries that arise on the same day as the
scheduled appointment. An emergency is defined as a major trauma that
occurs to the you or an immediate family member (e.g.. Hospitalization,
involvement in a car accident, victim of a crime.) Should one of these events
occur on the same day as your appointment, please notify me as soon as
reasonably possible, as you will be charged the full session fee if it appears
that the cancellation is made at the “last minute” unnecessarily.
Due to the nature of my work, there are times when unforeseen
clinical crises or emergencies may arise with other clients, requiring that
your appointment be canceled or delayed. When such situations are
unavoidable, I will make every effort to inform you at the earliest possible
time and reschedule the missed session time, in order to minimize the
inconvenience to you.
Payment and Fees
The standard fee for a 50 minute session is $150.00. EMDR, family, and couples
sessions are, at times, most effective if scheduled for 1.5 to 2 times the
standard session length; and in such cases the fee will be prorated
accordingly. Hourly prorated fees will also be charged should you require
written reports of your assessment, treatment goals, or progress, with the
minimum charge equal to the fee for a 50 minute session. I
offer a limited number of sessions at a reduced rate for those experiencing
financial hardship. Please bring it to my attention should your financial
situation hinder your ability to afford therapeutic services at the standard
rate. Court testimony
is charged at an hourly rate of twice the standard fee for a 50 minute session,
including travel time. No reduced fees are available for court
testimony.
You are expected to pay for services at the time they are
rendered, unless other arrangements are specifically discussed and agreed upon
with me in advance. An additional $10.00 per week will be charged
for session fees not paid on the date of service, which will begin to
accrue on the day directly following the date of service. Fees may be
paid via cash, check, or credit card. There is a $25.00 fee returned
checks. My website allows you use PayPal to pay for services, using your major
credit card while protecting the privacy of your account information. Please
bring a copy of your PayPal receipt to your scheduled therapy session, in
order to confirm that you have paid in advance. Invoices for
payment are available at your request.
As a service to you, I am willing to provide documentation of
services to insurance companies and other third-party payers, but I cannot
guarantee your benefit levels and am not responsible for their payment.
In some cases, insurance companies or other third party players may consider
certain services as not reasonable or necessary or may determine that services
are not covered. As I charge according to usual and customary rates for
my level of training and experience, you are responsible for payments
regardless of any agency’s arbitrary determination of usual and customary rates.
Telephone and Internet
Communication
If there is a matter where you need a brief/crisis consultation
with me, you may call to discuss the issue. Should the calls exceed 15
minutes or become frequent, you may be charged a proportionate amount of your
typical session fee.
You are welcome to send me correspondence related to your
treatment using the email address: susiemorganmft@me.com.
However, due to the inherent vulnerability of electronic communication, there
is no guarantee that email correspondence is confidential. I will generally respond only briefly via email and will,
rather, wait until you are face to face to address issues in any
depth. Please use my voice mail to communicate any urgent information, as
I cannot assure timeliness in reading or responding to email. In order to
maintain the clarity of the therapeutic relationship, I will generally not use
social networking sites (e.g. Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn) to communicate with
you.
Therapy sessions are generally conducted in-person. However,
should the decision be made that treatment be conducted via the telephone or
Internet ("telemedicine"), this decision will be made collaboratively
based on the potential risks, consequences, and benefits of the unique
situation involved. While telephone and Internet contact can overcome
barriers of proximity and convenience, these methods can also inhibit some
elements of communication, limit my use some types of treatment interventions,
and possibly create difficulty for me to intervene in the case of a
crisis. Due to varying quality of connection based on Internet speed, it
is recommended that a cable connection or better is used for Internet video
sessions, with a minimum of connection via DSL. Dial-Up connection is unable to maintain video
streaming.
When obtaining treatment via the telephone or Internet, all
existing laws protecting client confidentiality apply, all existing laws
regarding access to medical information and copies of medical records apply,
and dissemination of any client identifiable images or information from the
telemedicine interaction to other entities shall not occur without consent of
the client. However, the level of privacy involved in telephone and Internet
contact can vary significantly, and you must be willing to allow for this
risk.
Telemedicine may not be covered by your insurance, so it is your
responsibility to obtain prior authorization and specific billing instructions
prior to this therapist submitting claims to your insurance provider.
You have the option to withhold or withdraw consent for
treatment via the telephone or Internet at any time without affecting your
right to future treatment or risking any other potential consequences.
Confidentiality
The material you disclose is confidential and cannot be released
without your written consent. However, there are several important
exceptions to confidentiality. These include:
• If there is reasonable belief or suspicion that child
abuse has occurred
• If there is reasonable belief or suspicion that elder or
dependent adult abuse has occurred
• If the client makes a serious threat of harm to another
person
• If the client demonstrates danger to self or others
• If the client files an insurance claim to be reimbursed
for some portion of the cost, this gives the insurance carrier the right to
inquire regarding the client
• If the client enters into legal proceedings in which the
client raises the issue of his/her mental health status, the court may order
the applicable records
• If the client brings a lawsuit against this
therapist
• If a judge orders the therapist to release client
information
• If the therapist is disclosing medical information to a
provider of health care, health care service plan, or contractor for the
purposes of diagnosis or treatment of the client.
Should you give written permission to provide information to
another party, there is limited confidentiality. In these cases and in most
situations listed above, I can reveal information only to someone who has a
“need to know”, and entire records or irrelevant information may not be
disclosed. Whenever information will be shared with other persons, every effort
will be made to ensure that the receiving person also maintains
confidentiality.
In addition to the above, special circumstances apply to group,
couple, parent-child, and family therapy and any time the client chooses to
involve another person in treatment. Specifically, other individuals in the
room are not bound by privilege and may possibly not hold all information
confidential; I am not responsible for disclosure by these
individuals.
Please note that I do not provide court testimony or documentation for the courts unless legally required to do so. I am
not trained as a child custody evaluator or mediator, am unable to make
recommendations regarding custody arrangements, and generally will not provide
information to the court or its representatives beyond that which is legally
mandated.
You may have access to your treatment records, although it may
be best for me to discuss the items contained in the records with you or to
provide you with a summary for a specific purpose. Financial records and
insurance billing information are maintained in your chart and using the
Quickbooks Online accounting program. These records may be managed by
administrative personnel, who are under the same obligation to protection of
your privacy and confidentiality as your therapist. My administrative
personnel may contact you regarding accounting and scheduling
issues.
It is important to me that I respect your right to privacy
regarding your participation in therapy. Therefore, should you happen to
encounter me in the community, I will allow you to initiate and determine the
level of acknowledgment.
H.I.P.P.A.
The Notice of Privacy Practices provides information about how I
may use and disclose your protected health information. A copy of
the Notice of Privacy Practices is generally made available to you at the time
of intake but can be provided to you at any time upon your request.
While the critical information is already contained in this Information
form, I encourage you to read the Notice of Privacy Practices in
full. The Notice of Privacy Practices is subject to change. If I
change the Notice of Privacy Practices, you may obtain a copy of the revised
notice from me.
Secrets Policy
When a couple comes for treatment, even if the individuals are
seen alone for some sessions, the couple
is the client, not either individual. As a general rule, secrets are seen
as harmful to the effectiveness of treatment for a couple. In situations
when a couple is in therapy and secret information is revealed by one person,
it is understood that I will not reveal the information to the other party
without direct permission. However, in order to facilitate the success of
the treatment, I will encourage full disclosure of information between
participants. Should either member of the couple insist on maintaining a
secret or if revealing the secret information would endanger one of the
parties, I may determine that it is not workable to continue couple's therapy
at that time and that other options should be explored. Should such a situation
arise, I will discuss it with you thoroughly.
When a minor is involved in therapy, I will clarify whether the
client is the minor or the family. Generally, I work from an
orientation that the family is the
client, even if the individual family members are seen alone for some sessions.
Minors will be informed that their parents will typically have
access to information about their level of participation in treatment,
treatment goals, and progress, in addition to any additional information the
minor has provided consent to be shared. While a parent may have a right
to information revealed by a minor for whom they have consented for
treatment, I believe that it is therapeutically beneficial for the minor
to be able to choose whether or not to share the disclosures they
make in individual sessions with their parents. However, in
cases where the safety of the minor or any other person is endangered, I
maintain the right to reveal the secret information without the minor’s
permission. I ask that parents do not provide me with information
pertaining to their child or adolescent's behavior that they do not want
revealed to the child or adolescent, as my holding secret knowledge of this
type has limited value in achieving therapeutic ends.
If more than one "set" of parents is involved in a
minor's treatment or the parents live in separate homes, specific guidelines
and expectations will be discussed as to what types of information I will
communicate between parental figures pertaining to the minor's
treatment.
Crisis & Emergency
Coverage
I generally respond to voice mail only during my normal business
hours, Monday - Friday, from 10am-8pm. Under exceptional circumstances, I
may return a call outside of my normal business hours if you are in an urgent,
crisis situation. However, I may be unavailable at the time of your
call, so there may be a reasonable delay in the ability to respond to your
message. Therefore, should you be experiencing an emergency and require immediate assistance, please call 911 or
go to the nearest emergency room.
I will assign another qualified therapist to be available and
have access to treatment records should this be necessary under specific
circumstances when I am not available, such as vacations, emergencies,
disability, or death. The contact information for this therapist will be
provided on my voice mail when appropriate.
Boundaries of the
Therapeutic Relationship
The relationship with me, as your therapist, is solely
professional, and it is at risk of becoming confusing, ineffective, or even
harmful if clean boundaries around the nature of the relationship are not
maintained. This means that I will not engage in close friendship,
romantic relationship, sexual contact, financial/business/ employment
arrangements, or any other separate relationship simultaneous to acting as your
therapist.
It is often beneficial to maintain these boundaries even after
the therapy has ended. As "crossing paths" is possible through
the activities and workings of the community, I will take appropriate
professional precautions to insure that my therapeutic judgment is not impaired
when such interactions are unavoidable. I may choose to use cell phone,
texting, and email communication with you during the course of treatment, and
such communication is solely for professional purposes and does not constitute
engagement in anything other than a therapeutic relationship. While not
typical, there may be clinical reason for me to perform a home visit or conduct
a session outside of the office setting, and again this does not constitute anything
other than a professional relationship. Should you ever have confusion
or concerns regarding the boundaries of your relationship with me, please bring
these to my attention immediately.
Termination of Therapy
The length of time you remain in therapy is your decision.
I will provide counsel to you on this matter, based on assessment of the
presenting issues and the goals established during the course of
treatment. Should you be concerned or dissatisfied at any time with the
therapy provided, please discuss your concerns with me. It is a high
priority for me to meet your therapeutic needs and your communication is
essential in order to accomplish this. If it appears that you would
attain greater benefit from work with a different therapist, I will provide you
with referrals.
Potential Benefits
& Risks of Treatment
The process of therapy can involve much comfort and growth, but
it may also include difficult, challenging, and even painful emotions and
relational experiences. Treatment benefits, while likely, cannot be
guaranteed. As the work of therapy is inherently a partnership, the
outcome is dependent on what all participants contribute. My aim is to
use my education and clinical experience to effectively work with you toward your
treatment goals.
Statement Authorizing Consent for Self and/or Minor's Treatment
I
understand the above information regarding the nature and limitations
of the professional counseling relationship. I understand that copies
of any documents containing my signature are available upon my request
and that I can access the most updated information regarding treatment
policies online at www.susiemorganmft.com.
I
have asked any questions I need to ask in order to understand this
document in its entirety, and I understand that I should not sign it
until I have had all of my questions answered.
If
signing for a minor, I assert that I hold legal custody or legal
authorization to consent for the minor’s participation in therapy; the
therapist has been informed of all other individuals holding legal
custody or legal authorization to consent for the minor's participation
in therapy; and that the therapist must be provided with copies of
any/all applicable legal documentation pertaining to custody/consent.
