Fees, Medicare and Private Health Insurance

Individual and Couple Therapy
Group Therapy
Family Therapy
Phone, Email and Webcam Consultations
Other Services
Medicare
Private Health Funds

Fees

Payment Method
Payment can be made by eftpos (including credit), cash or cheque. Eftpos is the preferred method of payment. Medicare rebates are able at the time of your payment for those utilising eftpos or cash. This means that your rebate is transferred electronically to your bank account within 24 hours. Therefore, you no longer need to go to the Medicare office to claim your rebate.

Cancellation Fee
You will be charged a cancellation fee if you do not attend an appointment or if you cancel with less than 24 hours notice (at least one working day) the amount will be 40% of your scheduled fee.

Group Based Psychoeducation
$10 per person - weekly education session (limited 10 people).

Fee Schedule

1) Individual and Couple Therapy
Insight’s policy is to be clear, prior to commencing any service, about the expected costs of the therapy. The clinicians are able to provide an estimate of the amount of contact required after your initial session. All initial individual sessions will be 50 to 60 minutes to allow for proper assessment and treatment goals to be formulated.

The cost of individual therapy will vary based on the length and place of the session. Occasionally, treatment in other environments is necessary to achieve desired therapeutic outcomes and sessions may be held at places other than the consulting room. For example,
a session may be held on a bus if people have a phobia about catching buses.

The fee structure is designed to enable clients who are also attending group therapy and/or practicing exercises or management strategies outside of their face-to-face sessions to minimise their costs by having shorter 30-minute appointments.

There is no extra charge for couple therapy; that is the prices are per session, not per person. However, depending on the level of relationship distress the first session may be 90 minutes to allow for individual interviews and crisis management.

The fees are currently at rate less than that recommended by the Australian Psychological Society. For example, we have discounted a 50-60 minute consultation from $192 to $150.

The fees charged at the end of each session will be as follows.

* $110 Rebate available after 50 minutes.

Please note that psychological treatment is GST free. If you are eligible for a Medicare Rebate it can be processed at the time of payment (if you use eftpos), or you can take your receipt to a Medicare office to claim your entitlements (amounts specified above).

You may be entitled to claim another 80% of the out-of-pocket cost if you have reached your Medicare Safety Net threshold (www.medicareasutralia.gov.au).

Alternatively, partial or complete rebates may be available through your private health fund for psychological services. Please check with your health fund to determine their requirements and the level of rebate.

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2) Group Therapy
The number of persons in attendance and whether one or two therapists are required determines the fee structure and length of session for group therapy. The availability and suitability of this method of therapy for you will be discussed at your initial appointment.  

Organisations such as aged care residences, schools, disability services or community groups assisting multiple clients of Insight are encouraged to contact our clinicians to organise group therapy in their own premises.

Please see Other Services below for cost of organisation seeking staff mediation, facilitation of group process issues or other in-service programs such as stress management workshops.

* Rebate available when at least 6 in the group.  

3) Family Therapy
Family therapy fees are influenced by the benefits of having two therapists co-jointly conducting sessions.  This form of therapy is often useful when a family member is in individual therapy (particularly a young person) and is usually limited to only one or two sessions.

When only one therapist is involved, the number of sessions is likely to be greater.

This type of therapy is distinct from a carer accompanying a client to an individual session as it usually involves parents, siblings, children and other family members involved in day-to-day care. This service may attract a Medicare rebate. Please discuss with treating therapist.

4) Phone, Email and Webcam Consultations
In recognition that some clients find it difficult, to attend consultations (due to barriers such as work commitments, distance, lack of transport or health problems) and that occasionally extra encouragement outside of sessions is useful, Insight offers a variety of brief consultations for clients using phone or email.

Insight does not provide email consultations, telephone counselling or a planned support line to persons who have not attended an initial face-to-face consultation. 24 hour telephone support is provided by LifeLine 131 114.

Clients will be required to settle any charges from these consultations at their next session or will be billed monthly. No charges will apply for routine administrative phone calls and emails or any unsolicited emails to you.  No rebates are available for these services.

4) Other Services
The costs of other services listed below are guides only and actual costs will need to be arranged with a therapist prior to your appointment. Please phone or email with your details and specific request to obtain a quote.

• Cognitive Assessments -$200 (Brief Report) - $450 (Full Report)
• Neuropsychological Assessments - $450 - $600 (depending on assessments required)
• Memory and Dementia Screening - $75 - $450 (depending on assessments and report)
• Medicolegal Reports - $400 to $650
• Clinical Supervision -  $110 per hour
• Stress Management Workshops  $150 - $225 per hour
• Organisational Services – e.g. EAP $150 per hour, Onsite conflict mediation and/or staff development ($150 -$225 per hour/ per therapist).
• Program Evaluation Services ($150 - $225 per hour – depending on project and less for not-for-profit organization located in Hervey Bay Region)

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Medicare

For APS fact sheet click  here www.psychology.org.au/assests/Files/medicare_Fact_Sheet2.pdf

From the 1st of November 2006 new Medicare rebates were made available for patients with a mental disorder (see table below) to receive 12 individual and/or 12 group psychological services per calendar year. To be able to claim a rebate your general practitioner, a private pediatrician or psychiatrist must refer you. Your doctor in the public health system is generally not able to refer you unless they are treating you as a private patient.

General practitioners can only refer you under the Medicare rebate scheme after they have completed a Mental Health Care Plan and the cost of this processed by Medicare (either through your direct claim of a rebate or your doctor’s bulk billing for the service).

The 12 sessions are designed to be provided in two sets of six sessions with a review by the referring practitioner after the first set of six.  In exceptional circumstances, patients may access a further six sessions in the calendar year (total 18).

Rebates for these services are for patients who would benefit from a structured approach to the management of their care needs because of their mental illness significant interference in their cognitive, emotional and social functioning. This includes patients with mental disorders arising from:

Please note: that Dementia, delirium, tobacco use disorder and mental retardation by itself are not regarded as mental disorders and do not attract a rebate.

If you wish to check whether your GP has made you eligible for a Medicare rebate for our services please phone 132 011 and quote your Medicare number.

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Medicare Safety Net

The Medicare Safety Net is designed to help cover your out-of-pocket costs for medical services. The out-of-pocket costs you incur seeing our clinical psychologists will contribute to your safety net threshold. Once you reach a threshold, all further out-of-hospital costs (such as therapy by a clinical psychology) are reduced by 80%. Please see our fee schedule for the cost of particular session after one has reached the Safety Net threshold.

You need to register for the Medicare Safety Net program and Medicare will keep track of your out-of-pocket costs over the year and notify you if you are eligible for the further rebates. Please see the site www.medicareasutralia.gov.au for further information.

• Bulk Billing
• Bulk billing (no out-of-pocket expenses) is available to:
• Student who are attending Wide Bay TAFE or USQ University's campus in Hervey Bay.
  A student card is required as proof of enrollment and must have a Mental Health Care Plan with their GP.
• Young people currently case managed by Reconnect Youth Service and a Mental Health Care Plan with their GP.
• Those clients experiencing severe financial distress because of their mental illness and where this is indicated in the Mental Health Care Plan prepared by their GP.
• Other community service organisation wishing to arrange bulk billing for their clients will need to contact Insight directly. Please note that the capacity to transport clients to appointments is a necessity and a cancellation fee may be charged to the organisation if the client does not attend.

Private Health Funds

Partial rebates (up to a maximum of 80% of the fee) apply to most services provided by clinical psychologists. Psychologists are normally covered within the ‘Extras’ cover of your policy. Usually you are able to use your private health funds without being referred by a doctor and they may cover some psychological testing. Please check with your Health Fund to determine their requirements and the level of rebate.

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