All billing is done through the portal. We are in the process of setting up a text based billing system for payment, but all the documents you could need for any reason are available on the portal. The cost of paper billing is no longer affordable, and we have found this the most efficient system to transact business.

No. We do not participate in any EAP programs, regardless of what you’re insurance carrier may have told you. We are not on contract with any such plans.

We don’t receive any charitable or county funding, so we can’t offer a sliding fee scale and continue to fund our staff at a rate of pay commensurate with the market. We do take Kancare/Medicaid for children and teens to better serve lower income Kansans.

Yes and No.  We do not subscribe to or directly bill any medical sharing plans. You will need to cover all your costs directly with our office and download a “super bill” from your portal to turn into the Medishare plan for reimbursement. In general we have not found them to reimburse most of those claims, but your experience may vary.

Sometimes we can set up payment plans for copays and coinsurance, but this has to be worked out with the therapist who agrees to see you. You must keep an active credit card on file to sustain the payment plan, and have agreed upon fee per month. We can’t do payment plans to help cover deductible because the insurance company will see the full charge and credit that to your deductible, when you haven’t actually paid it yet. If you don’t keep up the payment plan, we have to reverse the charge to indicate to the insurance carrier that you’ve no longer met your deductible and that can create a cascade of problems for anyone else who has billed against your insurance. If something unforeseen goes awry with insurance — and it happens — we will work with you to set up a payment plan over the course of a year. 

Possibly. Today’s insurance market is a complex place to do business, whether you are a carrier, a provider like Family Psychological Services, or a covered life, like you. Historically in Kansas, insurance carriers were regulated closely by a powerful insurance commissioner who took seriously consumer protection and advocacy. As the political winds have shifted that is no longer true, and now we’re all kind of on our own. Consumers should look closely at their insurance benefits, particularly when used in the highly sensitive area of psychotherapy and psychoharmacology. We do not discourage people from using insurance, as some other offices tend to do, nor is that permitted by our contracts. But if you opt, of your own free will to forgo insurance, we can see you on a cash basis. However, we believe that if you’ve paid for a benefit, you deserve to use it, so we’ll work with you as best we can to bill your carrier.

You must cover any costs that your carrier does not cover. This is why we want you to make the phone call before you come to your first appointment, so you know from their mouth to your ear what should be covered. There are occasions when claims are not paid. If this is our fault, we will resubmit them until they are paid or, if we cannot correct our error, we will write them off. However, if the problem is with the insurance company, at some point we will exhaust all our efforts at collecting and you will have to cover the bill. We will work with you to dispute the non-payment, but as in every other healthcare situation, this ends up being between you and the carrier. 

This is actually an area of some controversy. The largest insurer in Kansas, Topeka-based Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas (BCBS of KS) retains the right of full access to members Protected Health Information (PHI) in order to determine “medical necessity” for treatment. BCBS of KS notes that other insurers also retain this right. However, the only commercial insurer who has set forth specific guidelines for auditing to determine medical necessity is BCBS of KS. Medicaid (KanCare) have been known to audit medical records to determine medical necessity and in some cases, practices have been recouped for the costs of services already delivered. That said, neither BCBS of Kansas nor any KanCare contractor has audited Family Psychological Services records for this purpose.

Auditing means that your psychiatric records may be reviewed by the insurer or a company designated by the insurer for to determine if diagnosis, treatment planning, the intensity of the treatment schedule, and the goals meet the insurer’s definition of medical necessity. While this is not too common, it is possible that the insurance carrier or its sub contractor will request more information about your case than you feel comfortable revealing, and you are not free to decline nor will you be notified of the audit. FPS has responded to this implied scrutiny by purchasing an elaborate electronic medical record (EMR) to both meet the requirements of BCBS while protecting sensitive patient data. You may find that this level of note-taking intrudes into your session, but it is a necessary part of the process of insurance reimbursement.

If you have a complaint or are dissatisfied with a denial of coverage for claims under your BCBS Kansas plan, you may be able to appeal or file a grievance. Contact BCBS Customer Service at 1-800-432-3990 or visit www.bcbsks.com/blueaccess. You may also contact the Kansas Insurance Department, 420 SW 9th Street, Topeka, Kansas 66612-1678, Phone: 800-432-2484, or visit www.ksinsurance.org, or the U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration at 1-866-444-3272 or www.dol.gov/ebsa.

No. While we use AI to develop document templates for clinical communications (e.g. a letter of accommodation) and sometimes for publicity, we do not use AI for any record keeping or billing task that could involve private health information. If a staff person uses AI to produce a document, no names or personal information are entered into the AI agent.

No. It is our policy that whoever signs the child up for therapy is responsible for the bill. If your ex-spouse wants to contact the office and agree to cover those costs, we’re happy to put their credit, FSA, or HSA card on file. But we will not review court documents, or make any agreements to collect from anyone who is not volunteering themselves to cover the cost.

Yes, they can. But you are ultimately responsible if they do not pay. Normally, the parent will put their credit, FSA, or HSA card on file in the portal at the time of intake, and then we’ll bill against that card for anything not covered by your health care insurance. This works quite well, but it does require you to authorize us to speak with your parent about billing. You are also free to give your parent access to the portal (no clinical records are available there) or to send them statements from the portal as needed.