Co-Psych Fees

CO-Ψ	Co-Psych.com
	Corvallis Psych' Clinic	*James Phelps, M.D.*

Rates For Services
(page revised August 2007)

A. Using your insurance and their required codes
B. Pay for what you use (hourly rates)
C. Services not covered by insurance (and why)

A. Using your insurance and their required codes

As you can see, I have set my rates to avoid leaving money in the pocket of the insurance company. As their rates go up, so do the headaches and time in dealing with them, so I charge accordingly.

Code	Service	Time	Typical Insurance Pays:	Co-Psych Rates, 2007-
90801	Initial Evaluation plus bill or assist with insurance	45 minutes plus prep', report,etc.; plus insurance time, no additional charge	$170-260	$260
90807	Psychotherapy plus medication management; plus bill or assist with insurance	50 minutes; plus insurance time, no additional charge	$124-180	$180
90805	Psychotherapy plus medication management; plus bill or assist with insurance	20 minutes; plus insurance time, no additional charge	$75-120	$120
90862	Medication management; plus bill or assist with insurance	10-15 minutes; plus insurance time, no additional charge	$65-90	$90

Your insurance may require a co-pay on your part, or only reimburse a percentage of these charges. Make sure you know what percentage they are going to pay, so you know what percentage you will be asked to pay when seen.

B. Pay for what you use

(unchanged since) 2003 rates: $175/hour (compare attorneys, accountants)

Minutes	Rate	Minutes	Rate
< 5	$15	31-32	$93
6-8	$25	33-34	$99
9-10	$29	35-36	$105
11-12	$35	37-38	$111
13-14	$41	39-40	$117
15-16	$47	41-42	$123
17-18	$53	43-44	$128
19-20	$58	45-46	$134
21-22	$64	47-48	$140
23-24	$70	49-50	$146
25-26	$77	51-52	$152
27-28	$82	53-54	$158
29-30	$88	55-56	$163
		57-58	$169
		59-60	$175

C. Services not covered by insurance (and how to minimize these costs)

Handling your questions or concerns between visits -- except for emergencies, which are not charged
Prescription refill requests from you or your pharmacy (why a charge for this?)
Rescheduling established appointments
Contact with your primary care provider as needed
Laboratory and other data management (creating flow charts, and records for your review)
Preparation of reports (for lawyers, social security, etc.)

All of these services are billed at the per-minute rates above.

(D). Why are the insurance-code rates higher than the charges/minute rates?

Because dealing with your insurance company adds an additional layer to the process, including:

negotiating with them over rates;
dealing with their refusals to pay because some form was not filled out properly;
credentialing with them, which means a bunch of paperwork, renewed yearly in most cases;
preparing "treatment plans" for their review, and tracking when those are "due" -- then calling their representatives when something goes wrong with the timing;
tracking their payments, or not-payments, and calling their representatives -- again -- to work out what's wrong so that I do get paid for work already done (several months ago);

and so forth. You wouldn't believe the number of people involved in this process.

If you pay for what you use at the time of service, all of this is avoided -- so you ought to pay less, as you're buying a different product.