Every practitioner is free to lay down his/her own terms and conditions; their respect guarantees the working environment which places the patient in contact with his/her therapist or counsellor. The same goes for the possibility of working together and thus of the success of the venture which has been undertaken.
This therapeutic context implies:
On the part of the practitioner in whom the individual confides: sympathetic consideration, openness, individualised support and a commitment to confidentiality (aside from the psychological support provided to the patient as part of a group: we then speak of a “shared secret” between doctors and para-medics);
On the part of the patient: a real desire to make progress, to explore the paths which open up whilst taking on board issues which might emerge from reflections during the therapy sessions;
But also the respect of his/her physical person and the working environment he/she provides (no form of violence will be tolerated) as well as the respect of his/her financial obligations towards the therapist he/she is seeing and according to the methods laid out below of which the patient has taken cognizance (on display in the waiting room).
What are these financial conditions?
Fees are payable in cash at every session. However, if the patient prefers he/she can pay for his/her session by bank transfer in advance of the planned session (4 working days), mentioning the date of the scheduled session. It is possible to make a group payment by bank transfer for the therapeutic team supervision sessions, as long as payments are always made in accordance with the terms and conditions.
Every scheduled session is due in its entirety: even if the patient didn’t attend his/her session, even if he/she let us know he/she would be absent. However, if a scheduled session is cancelled at least 72 hours (only working days) before the date then this payment term does not apply. However, in the event of repeated cancellation of sessions less than seven days before the scheduled date, the patient may be deemed to be breaking the therapy contract. In order to facilitate the organisation of everyone’s agenda, it could be that two consecutive sessions or more have been scheduled in order to ensure that the patient gets his/her preferred time slot: in this event and, if the patient desires to stop his/her treatment in the meantime, only the next scheduled session is payable, as of the point at which he/she has informed the practitioner of his/her decision (which is the patient’s own personal decision) to stop the treatment in the course of a session and this in order to avoid any misunderstanding which would unnecessarily expose the patient to payments of fees due as a consequence of his/her lack of communication.
The patient who is liable for a session pays this by bank transfer before any other session which has been planned, mentioning his/her name if he/she is not the holder of the bank account used, as well as the date of the session due. He/she can, however, and only after having received the prior agreement of the practitioner, make the payment due in cash at the next schedule session (as long as there are not more than 7 days between the two sessions in question). Just like the patient who wishes to have further sessions, the patient who is liable for one session but doesn’t wish to make any further appointments should make his/her payment by bank transfer, always by name and mentioning the date upon which the session due was scheduled. This condition also applies to patients who wish to stop their treatment but who haven’t passed on this information to the practitioner in the manner laid out in the terms and conditions.
Beyond seven days: additional charge on the fees which remain unpaid: as for the previous conditions, what follows is applicable when the session provided hasn’t been paid for by the patient, when the patient has not informed us that he/she wasn’t going to come to the scheduled session or when the patient informed us of his/her absence outside of the acceptable time period based on the application of the present terms and conditions, in other words the fees due will be automatically increased by 10% applied in the form of reminder fees and this without prejudice to any administrative fees, legal fees and lawyer’s fees that the practitioner might have to pay in the event that the patient still hasn’t paid the practitioner’s fees after a second reminder has been sent out.
Partial reimbursement of the sessions thanks to an intervention by the mutual insurance company:
The mutual insurance company reimburses part of the psychotherapy sessions as long as the psychologist who provides them is registered with the Commission of Psychologists. The number of sessions concerned as well as the amount of the intervention is determined by each mutual insurance company. Any psychologist registered with the Commission of Psychologists is expected to provide medical certificates for sessions that have been paid for, in accordance with the number of sessions granted by the patient’s mutual insurance. The patient will provide the therapist with a form that the psychologist will complete taking all the sessions concerned into account. The form will be filled out by the practitioner after the treatment and/or maximum number of sessions which can be reimbursed within a timeframe which will take account of the therapist’s administrative and clinical workload, the maximum deadline fixed by the mutual insurance companies is two years. No certificate will be provided for unpaid sessions.
Christine HENDERICKX,
Registered with the Belgian Commission of Psychologists
Registration number: 782208635