Policies and Fees

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Thank you for your interest in our services. As a private occupational therapy clinic, our goal is to provide high quality services that are helpful to the child/client and their family, and collaborate with other professionals. Our policy is not to participate in adversarial situations.

Evaluations/Consultations with Report
Minimum $750; $300 per hour for time spent, including the following services:

• Direct assessment
• Records review, and
• Telephone consultation with other team members to gain information about the child (as requested).

The fee for the Sensory Integration and Praxis Test (SIPT) is $1300 as it requires extensive training and additional time to administer and score. This charge includes a one-hour parent conference.

A very specific, limited consultation, without report (not appropriate for obtaining insurance coverage for ongoing treatment), will be charged at the rate of $300 for the first 50 minutes. Any additional time or follow-up session(s) will be billed at the rate of $150 per 50 minutes.

First Treatment Session Only $300, then $150 a session When an assessment was done at another facility but a treatment plan needs to be developed or reports need to be reviewed, a one time, first session charge is at a higher rate to account for the additional time required by the therapist to plan your child's therapy. If written documentation (a report) is required before 6 months of therapy, there will be an additional charge for the report writing time (see below). If the assessment was done at this facility, there is no extra charge for the first treatment session; it will be charged at the $150 per session rate.

Registration Fee
A registration fee of $300 needs to be paid within one month of beginning therapy, to provide payment for the last 2 sessions. The first month of therapy will be considered a trial. If we feel the clinician's skills are not a good match for your child, we will let you know during that time. Likewise, during this time, if you are not satisfied for any reason, you may cancel the rest of the sessions without penalty. If there is a change in your child's therapist, you will be provided another trial period.

Reports
$150/hour Written documentation requested more often than 6-month intervals will be charged for the report writing time.

Meetings/Travel
$165/hour, local travel (additional charges for more than 15 miles) We want to work in a collaborative manner with parents and members of your intervention team. At times, attendance at meetings (home visit, team meeting, IEP, etc.) may be appropriate. We are happy to try to arrange our schedule (if possible) to participate in such meetings, but must charge for the time to travel to and attend the meeting.

Payment Schedules
Payment is expected on the day of service. We are only set up to accept cash or a check. Since the amount of time for an evaluation can vary, an initial payment of $375 is expected at the time of the initial session. The remainder will be billed upon completion of the evaluation. The balance of the evaluation cost is due upon receipt of the bill. An additional option for individual therapy is to pay for 8 sessions in advance, for which a 5% discount is given. The regular, in clinic treatment cost would be $1140 for 8 sessions, paid in advance.

In the event that you make payment with a check which is returned without payment, you will have 7 days from the time you are notified to make alternate payment arrangements. You will be responsible for any bank fees or charges because of the returned check. In the event that a second check is returned for non-payment, bank fees plus a $25 bookkeeping and processing fee will be charged.

Any balance past due by more than 30 days shall be subject to interest charges of 1.5% per month, plus a $25 bookkeeping and processing fee.

Reimbursement/Funding of Services
Services provided are occupational therapy. For some children, services may or may not be considered "educationally necessary" or "medically necessary". Our assessment of needs and recommendations will be done in an independent manner and will not attempt to answer funding or reimbursement issues.

Insurance
While we do not bill insurance for you, we will assist you with the information you need to gain reimbursement (if covered by your plan). Please let us know if your insurance company requests additional information in order to process a claim. While they may send you a letter that states that additional information has been requested, they do not always send us a request for that information.

School District Funding
School Districts generally have their own occupational therapist(s) or an existing contract with a specific agency. They are generally not interested in contracting with a different agency, but occasionally our services may be covered by a school district. Schools only provide occupational therapy as a related service to special education. Therefore, a child must first qualify for special education services before occupational therapy will be considered.

A school district is not required to provide these services for a child attending a private school. Our facility is certified as a Nonpublic Agency (NPA) through the state Department of Education, a criteria a district would require of an agency that they may have a contract.

We will not write a report telling a school district that they are not providing adequate services. We have not seen the services and have not observed your child in the school environment and program. We will make recommendations on what would be beneficial for your child's overall development, not a determination of therapy needs that are necessary as a part of the child's educational program.

No-shows
Appointments are a contract for the exclusive use of the therapist's time. Parents will be charged the full session rate for no-shows. Please call to cancel if you are unable to make an appointment.

Fee for Cancellation
Sessions cancelled with less than 24 hours notice will be billed at the full rate. In order to avoid additional rate increases, we must ensure that the scheduled treatment sessions are filled. A limited number of cancellations (including for illness) are allowed at no cost. Families are provided the following number of cancellations:

• 3 sessions during the Spring semester
• 2 during the Fall semester
• 2 for the summer

(For a child who receives therapy two times a week, 4 cancellations are provided for Spring, 3 for Fall, and 3 for Summer.) Any cancellations beyond that limit, will have to be charged, 1/2 the regular session rate ($75 for any cancelled session, for any reason). The following days are considered holidays and are not counted in the allowed missed sessions. If you choose to schedule an appointment, our usual cancellation policies apply.

• President's Day (if the office is open, scheduling an appointment is optional)
• Memorial Day (if the office is open, scheduling an appointment is optional)
• Fourth of July (the office is closed)
• Labor Day (if the office is open, scheduling an appointment is optional)
• Thanksgiving Day (the office is closed)
• The day after Thanksgiving (if the office is open, scheduling an appointment is optional)
• Christmas day and New Year's Day (the office is closed)
• The week between Christmas and New Years (if your child's therapist is available, scheduling an appointment is optional)

If you celebrate a religious holiday, please let us know within 2 weeks of beginning therapy and that session will not be counted. We work with families who have children in a large number of different school districts, private schools, children who are not in a school program and those that are home-schooled. School holidays and schedules are not consistent and we cannot adapt our schedule to any particular school schedule. Due to scheduling constraints, make-ups cannot generally be provided. If a make-up can be scheduled, then the missed session will not be counted (or charged). With this in mind, please provide us information about schedule conflicts or illness with as much notice as possible. Insurance companies and school districts will not reimburse or pay for cancellation fees. If you are unable to commit to consistent attendance, then a regular treatment time cannot be held for your child.

Cancellations due to illness
Often parents do not know that a child is sick until the morning of an appointment. In these cases no charge will be made, provided the parent notifies the clinic/therapist on the morning of the appointment, as early as possible, but in any event, prior to the scheduled therapy time. We have both an answering machine and voice mail, which can take your message before or after work hours. A fever indicates that a child is ill and is contagious. We are unable to expose the therapist and other children to the illness. Please call to cancel the therapy session if your child has had a fever or other contagious condition (e.g. pink eye) within 24 hours prior to your appointment. However, if a child has some congestion and only slightly reduced energy, we can generally work on less physically demanding tasks for that session.

Notice to Discontinue Treatment/Change Therapy Time
If you choose to discontinue therapy or decide to change the scheduled therapy time, you will need to provide 2 weeks notice prior to your last session. If the proper notice is not provided, you will still need to pay the cancellation fee for any sessions not attended. Payment for the last 2 sessions will be deducted from your registration fee.

Late Returns
While we realize there are times a parent or caregiver may need to leave the clinic during the therapy session, we cannot have staff available and be responsible for monitoring/supervising the child once the therapy session is over. Therapy sessions are 50 minutes in length. Additional time will be charged at the regular therapy rate.

Telephone Consultation
We would like to work cooperatively with you and other professionals (physician, teacher, other therapists) to meet your child's needs. There will be no charge for telephone conversations that are 10 minutes or less. However, consultation fees (pro rated at $150 per 50 minutes) are required for conversations that are longer than 10 minutes.

Right to Refuse or Discontinue Services
Our interpretation, recommendations, and treatment plans are based, in part, on the history and information that you provide us. If information about your child's medical/educational history, interventions, and needs are withheld, misrepresented, altered, or omitted, we reserve the right to terminate the services. Services may be refused or discontinued due to non-payment of services, aggressive behavior, lack of progress, lack of cooperation, or a poor match between the needs of the family and skills of the therapist.