Posted by jane d on April 15, 2011, at 21:39:07
In reply to Re: Paying for services not yet rendered? » violette, posted by Solstice on April 15, 2011, at 20:12:58
I'm not sure it's a matter of ethics. The prepayment requirement sounds like they are trying to deal with the problem of a lot of no shows and cancellations that they believe are caused by people not having an economic incentive to show up.
I do sympathize with that concern. Otherwise either the therapist eats the cost of every cancellation if they are paid per client session (many are) and pretty soon they can't buy their groceries or, if they are salaried, the practice ends up raising everyones fees to cover it.
If they are "in network" your insurance company's contract with them probably determines whether they can charge a fee like this. I'd check with them. (And complain to them.)
That said I'd personally really resent paying in advance and would probably look for someone else.
It's never been important to me to have a fixed date and time. In fact I've sometimes suspected that the whole idea of having a specific time blocked out and treated as sacred was created for therapists' convenience and profit more than clients'. But if it's something that matters to your son he should try to work something out with his therapist. If he can't then he may be able to get the same results by making sure that each week he's scheduling the appointment for a month from now. Or, of course, go elsewhere if he can.
I hate to say it but I suspect that if this isn't already widespread it will be soon.
poster:jane d
thread:982589
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20110324/msgs/982978.html