Health Insurance Reimbursement

Usually there is no difficulty with health insurance reimbursement, but you should check with your company beforehand. Not all U.K. health insurance policies cover psychiatry, so-called chronic disorders, “developmental problems”, or what they call behaviour problems. The occasional company resists a charge of over £180.00 for a first appointment, because in most areas of medicine an assessment lasts 30 minutes or less. My contract is with you, not with your insurance company. I cannot get involved with major correspondence with your insurance company on your behalf, and I need to say that in bringing your child to see me, you accept the responsibility to pay my fee if your insurance does not.

Letters and Prescriptions

I can include a brief letter (to you or your G.P.) arising from follow-up appointments at no extra cost. Multiple letters, special letters to schools, telephone calls to, and liaison with other professionals, etc, takes time, and I need to charge for these pro rata.

Paperwork and administration associated with my practice is very time-consuming.

There are some things that have to charge for pro rata:

Providing questionnaires and interpreting responses £100

Prescriptions £ 50

Completion of Insurance forms £ 50-£100

I have to buy prescription forms for controlled medicines from the NHS. Please note I am only able to issue a 30 day prescription for controlled drugs, due to new PCT regulations.

Letters to schools or colleges are charged at £ 80.00.

If I have to liaise with a pharmacy (faxes, phone calls, etc), write a separate report for an insurance company when they request it, or compose a reply to an email, then I will charge pro rata according to the time it takes (usually between 10-20 mins) £ 50-£100).

Appointment Cancellations

60 and 30 minute appointments that are cancelled less than 3 full working days before they are due, will be charged for in full, as it is difficult to offer them and make arrangements with patients to attend at very short notice.

The assessment appointments will be charged for in full, if cancelled less than 5 days before. Cancellations made less than 10 working days before the appointment will incur a charge of 50% of the total.