Licensed Psychologist and Psychoanalyst

Insurance

• I accept insurance if you have a policy that allows out-of-network benefits.   I will provide the paperwork you need to submit for reimbursement.  Your insurance company should reimburse you for some percentage of the session fee.  Also if you have flex plan benefits through work, or a health savings account, you should be able to use those funds to go toward the cost.
  

(There is a lot of variation from insurance plan to insurance plan on the percentage of the fee the

company will reimburse, as well as on the deductible and the number of sessions they will cover.

You may want to call your insurance company first to find out exactly what the benefits are on your

policy.)

• I am not an in-network provider for any managed care health insurance companies.  The reasons for this are:
  

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• I do not intend to take away from clinicians who do choose to be in-network providers.  There are some good clinicians who choose to try to work within the confines of a managed care format.  I simply choose not to.  This is also my view of managed care companies.  Other people might have different, more favorable, views.
  

Fees

• I would be glad to discuss my fee with you on the phone or when you first come in. 
  

Credit Cards

• I accept Visa and Mastercard.
  

• I believe this uncertainty affects how much the mind will open itself up.  It is like starting a relationship with someone you know is planning to move in 6 months.  The mind and heart will automatically hold back a bit, even if you don't intend them to. 
  

• Managed care doesn't have a lot of concern about how much the mind opens up.  There is concern for targeted reduction of specific symptoms as quickly and cheaply as possible.  I do have concern for relief from painful symptoms but I also have concern for allowing for deeper self exploration if the patient desires and needs it.  I also care whether or not a person who needs and wants to open up feels that it is safe to do so.
  

Managed care companies require a treatment format designed to quickly reduce specific symptoms.  It is like managed care medicine - high volumes of patients that the doctor sees for the shortest time possible. 

I prefer to consult in detail with the patient or couple and base my recommendation on the nature of the difficulties they are presenting.  I might recommend short term therapy but if so it will be because short term treatment is what appears to me to be he best way to help with their concerns..

I believe the therapy itself is adversely affected by the insecurity of managed care procedures.  Most managed care companies only authorize about 5 to 10 sessions at a time.  Even if the policy says you have 30 or more sessions covered, you can never really know if the next 5 sessions will be approved or if the treatment will be cut off at any minute. 

There is an underlying philosophy of managed care that says psychotherapy should be utilized as an intervention for reducing targeted symptoms in as short a time as possible.  This is very different than the philosophy that psychotherapy can be utilized as a place to learn how to become happier or live a more fulfilling life or become more secure as a person or other goals of this type.

Lynne Harkless, Ph.D.  4601 Ponce de Leon Blvd.  Ste 310    Coral Gables, FL  33146   305.926.1133    LHarkless1@aol.com