We are a team of licensed psychologists,
social workers and psychiatrists. It is our goal to provide the highest level
of competence, expertise, and services to our clients in the areas of family and
individual psychotherapy, diagnostic evaluation, corporate consultations,
divorce mediation, biofeedback, career counseling, and psychotropic
medications. In the following page, we will describe some of the practice
procedures, which may affect you. These procedures comprise a significant part
of our treatment contract with you unless we mutually agree on specific
exceptions.
Office Hours:
There is a reception staff to answer our phone, (215) 540-5860, 9am- 9pm Monday
through Friday. At all other times the phone will be answered by our own
voicemail system, which will direct your call to the appropriate voice mail of
each staff member. We try to return all phone calls within a 24-48 hour period.
Please indicate if your call is urgent and needs immediate attention.
Emergencies:
We are available to our clients in the event of a true mental health emergency.
If this is the case and no one is in the office, please leave a message on our
emergency voice mail. This will automatically page the therapist on-call.
Patients should recognize that their individual therapist may not always be
available to respond to emergency calls. The on-call therapist will provide
help.
If you have caller ID and need to receive
a call back from the emergency on-call staff outside of normal business hours,
be sure your caller ID allows calls from phones that have caller ID blocked.
Most of our home phones have blocked caller ID so we can serve your needs and
still meet our needs for privacy.
Complaints:
If
you have any complaints, please address your grievance to: Dr. Richard P.
Johnson at 220 Commerce Drive, Suite 401, Fort Washington, PA 19034
(215-540-5860 ext. 15). In the event your complaint concerns Dr. Johnson, you
may contact Dr. Debra Resnick, at the same address. Your concerns will be
answered and resolved promptly.
Cancellations:
If
the need arises for you to cancel an appointment, you must give 24 hours
notice. If you do not cancel within this time frame, you will be charged a fee
of $50 for the canceled session. If the cancellation was caused from
serious illness or similar unavoidable circumstance, and if this is your first
missed appointment, you are invited to discuss an exception to the rule with
your therapist. Appointments will not be rescheduled
until payment is received for missed (No Show) appointments.
Payments:
Payment is due at time of service. In cases where full payment presents an
economic hardship, specific circumstances can be worked out with the therapist.
When there is insurance reimbursement, we will expect to be paid after each
session. We ask that you read your policy to be sure that you are fully aware of
any limitations, co-pays or deductibles of the benefits provided. Appointments will not be rescheduled until payment is received;
if payment cannot be made we are willing to refer you to agencies that provide
low cost or no cost services.
Health insurance:
This is a partnership between you, your insurance company, and your therapist,
depending on the reimbursement agreement. It is not a contract between
the therapist and the insurance company. Your company may base its allowance in
a fixed fee or HMO schedule, which may or may not coincide with our usual fees.
In some cases, there are contractual agreements between us and your insurance
company concerning fees. You are responsible for being
aware of the coverage your insurance provides, as you are responsible for any
fees not covered due to your failure to follow the procedures of your health
plan.
Returned checks:
There will be a processing fee of $25 assessed for each returned check to cover
the charges we incur.
Telephone Calls:
Necessary, routine telephone calls to you or on your behalf are part of the
practice and free of charge. Lengthy calls for
scheduling or clinical matters will be billed at an hourly rate which is not
covered by your insurance company. Calls to renew prescriptions that should
have been done via a regular medication review will be assessed at the usual
cost for a medication review and will be your full responsibility for payment.
Missed Appointments:
PSHDC, Inc. has a long-standing policy of charging for appointments canceled with less than 24 hours notice or not showing for scheduled appointments. Patients are billed at the therapist's full rate of service. These charges cannot be submitted to insurance companies for reimbursement. Patients wishing to discuss cancellation charges should contact Dr. Richard Johnson, director of PSHDC. Financial decisions pertaining to PSHDC, Inc. are not made by the therapists.
Whenever possible, please give more than 24 hours notice when you do not plan to keep an appointment. This increases the likelihood that a patient on our waiting list can take the appointment time.
Please do not schedule appointments unless you plan to keep them. Patients who schedule many appointments in advance and then cancel frequently may not be allowed to schedule more than one appointment at a time.
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