Question 1

Confidentiality

Accepted Answer

In general, state and professional ethical codes protect the privacy and confidentiality of a client receiving psychological services, meaning that Dr. Yin can only release information to others with that client's written permission. However, there are some exceptions.
If you are an imminent threat to yourself, Dr. Yin may be obligated to take action to try to ensure your safety, such as through seeking hospitalization for you or contacting family members or others who can help provide protection. If a situation like this occurs, Dr. Yin would attempt to discuss this with you before taking any action.
If you are threatening serious bodily harm to another, Dr. Yin may be required to take protective actions. These actions may include notifying the potential victim, contacting the police, or seeking hospitalization for you.
Dr. Yin is also a mandated reporter to the state if there is a risk of abuse to a minor, an elderly person, or a person with a disability.
In most legal proceedings, you have the right to prevent Dr. Yin from providing any information about your treatment. In some legal proceedings though, a court mandate for a release of records could be issued, and Dr. Yin would be legally required to comply with this court mandate.
If you share that another mental health provider sexually exploited someone in the context of their professional services, Dr. Yin has an ethical obligation to report the offending mental health provider to he appropriate authorities.
If you are using insurance or another 3rd-party payer, our practice must share certain information with them, which includes your diagnosis and the times of your visits. At times we may also be required to share additional information such as your symptoms and progress. If there is a dispute with your insurance provider about billing, our practice reserves the right to provide any information necessary to clarify and collect any outstanding balance.At times, Dr. Yin may find it helpful to consult another mental health professional about a case. These consultations would not break your confidentiality, as Dr. Yin would not reveal any identifying information about you or any other clients. The person Dr. Yin consults with would also be legally bound to keep any information shared confidential. Dr. Yin may not necessarily tell you about this consultation if it were to occur (unless it is important to our clinical work together) but this is to inform you that consultations like these can occasionally happen.

Please also note that virtual assistant technology devices (e.g. Alexa, Echo, Siri, etc.) can compromise the confidentiality of your sessions. Dr. Yin does not keep devices like these in her space during psychotherapy sessions, but if you bring devices like this into the office or have them present with you during teletherapy sessions, you are responsible for how those devices may compromise your confidentiality.

This written summary about confidentiality and its exceptions to confidentiality is intended to inform you about potential issues that could arise. It is important to discuss any questions or concerns that you may have about this at our next meeting and in any subsequent meetings, as necessary. Dr. Yin will be happy to discuss these issues with you and provide clarification as possible. However, if you need specific advice, Dr. Yin is not an attorney and cannot provide formal legal advice as the laws governing confidentiality are quite complex.

Question 2

Billing & Payment

Accepted Answer

Dr. Yin's self-pay or out-of-pocket hourly fee for psychotherapy services is $250/hr for the initial appt process, and $200/hr for subsequent ongoing sessions. You will be expected to pay for each session at the time it is held.

If you are using your insurance, you are responsible to fully pay your patient responsibility. You can verify your insurance and patient responsibility by setting up a Headway account.

If we meet longer than the usual time, Dr. Yin will charge accordingly. In addition to weekly appointments, Dr. Yin charge this $200/hr rate for other professional services you may need, though Dr. Yin will prorate the hourly cost if Dr. Yin works for periods less than 1 hour. Other professional services include report writing, telephone conversations lasting longer than 10 minutes, attendance at meetings with other professionals you have authorized, preparation of treatment summaries, and the time spent performing any other service you may request of Dr. Yin.

Dr. Yin’s hourly rate for participation in legal proceedings is $400/hour, which is different from her rate for providing psychotherapy services of $200/hour. If you become involved in legal proceedings that require Dr. Yin's participation, you will be expected to pay for any professional time Dr. Yin spends on your legal matter, even if the request comes from another party.

If your account has not been paid for more than 30 days and arrangements for payment have not been agreed upon, Dr. Yin has the option of using legal means to secure the payment. This may involve hiring a collection agency or going through small claims court. If such legal action is necessary, its costs will be included in the claim. In most collection situations, the only information Dr. Yin's will release regarding a client’s treatment is the client's name, the dates, times, and nature of services provided, and the amount due.

Question 3

Late Cancellations, Late Reschedules, or No-Shows

Accepted Answer

If you need to cancel or reschedule an appointment, you must give Dr. Yin at least 48 business hours notice, otherwise you will be responsible for the full cost of the session, including what insurance ordinarily would have paid. This means that even if you usually use insurance and only pay your co-pay, in the case of a late cancellation/late reschedule/no-show, you will be responsible for both the usual co-pay and the amount that your insurance would have paid for the session. Insurance companies do not reimburse for missed appointments. Zelle, cash, checks, or credit cards are accepted.

Furthermore, you are expected to arrive on-time to your scheduled appointments. Dr. Yin will give you a 10-minute grace period to wait for your arrival and may try to contact you during that waiting period to determine if you are on your way. However, if you do not arrive within 10 minutes of your appointment start time, your appointment will be considered a no-show or late cancellation, and you will be charged according to the late cancellation/late reschedule/no-show policy described above.

If you give advance notice through email that you will be arriving late, Dr. Yin can wait for you up to 15 minutes past your appointment time. However, your session will still end by the originally scheduled end time, meaning the session will be abbreviated. For this reason, if you give advance notice that you will be late but cannot arrive within 15 minutes of the originally scheduled start time, there will not be sufficient time for your session so we will still need to reschedule. This would be considered a late reschedule and subject to the fee policy explained above.

If you have multiple cancellations or no shows, you will need to discuss with Dr. Yin the challenges of keeping your appointments. Furthermore, if you do not contact Dr. Yin to reschedule within 2 weeks of a late cancellation or missing appointment, and you do not respond to Dr. Yin's attempt to contact you, your case will be considered inactive. If 60 days pass from your last appointment, your case will be automatically closed and our counseling relationship will be considered terminated. You would still be welcome to reach back out after the 60-day window, but it may be necessary at that point to re-evaluate your concerns through a new initial appointment together.

Question 4

Meetings

Accepted Answer

Dr. Yin normally conducts an initial evaluation, which is scheduled for an initial 50-55 minute session. Sometimes the initial evaluation process can take 2-3 sessions total. After the initial evaluation process, subsequent ongoing therapy sessions will typically be weekly for a 50-55 minute duration, at a time that we agree on. It is possible for some sessions to be longer if needed or less frequent if desired.

You are expected to arrive on-time to your scheduled appointments. You also need to be fully sober for our sessions. If you are under the influence of any substances, we cannot ethically provide psychotherapy services to you and will need to reschedule our session. This would be considered a late reschedule and subject to the late reschedule fee policy. Examples of substances that you cannot be under the influence of include but are not limited to: alcohol, marijuana, nicotine, inhalants, cocaine, opiates, hallucinogens, and pain medications.

For telehealth appointments, please ensure that you have full privacy with no one else in the room, camera on, sitting upright, and fully dressed. Please also ensure that you are not within a moving vehicle during any telehealth sessions, as there are safety concerns if you are the driver and confidentiality concerns if you are the passenger. You also need to be located within the state of Texas for telehealth appointments.

Question 5

Teletherapy

Accepted Answer

Dr. Yin does offer psychotherapy through telehealth. Telehealth sessions rely on the internet, so there can be a potential risk for a breach of privacy. On her part, Dr. Yin will use a HIPPA Compliant telehealth platform, maintain confidentiality, and follow secure record keeping practices according to the laws of Texas and the professional ethics of the American Psychological Association. On your part, you also are responsible for confidentiality on your end of the electronic communication, and Dr. Yin is not responsible for breaches on your end.

You will need several things to be able to participate in teletherapy effectively.
A computer/laptop/phone with a microphone, speakers, and a camera for video conferencing
A secure and stable internet connection
A private space (no one else in the room and where you will not be interrupted or overheard)
To be physically located in the state of Texas
To remain in a consistent location (not walking around or in a moving vehicle) during the appointment and willing to verify your location
To verify with your insurance that telehealth is covered, if you wish to pay using insurance

Dr. Yin legally cannot provide telehealth services to you if you are not physically located in the state of Texas during your telehealth appointment. If you have a previously scheduled video appointment and realize you will not be in Texas during that appointment, you must notify Dr. Yin with at least 48 business hours notice, otherwise you will be responsible for the late cancellation/late reschedule/no-show fee.

As mentioned before, virtual assistant technology devices (e.g. Alexa, Echo, Siri, etc.) can compromise the confidentiality of your teletherapy sessions. If you have devices like this present in your space during teletherapy, you are responsible for how those devices may compromise your confidentiality.

Not all clients find telehealth to be the best modality for them. If you find that telehealth is not working for you, please inform Dr. Yin so you can discuss other treatment options.

Question 6

Discharge Process

Accepted Answer

There are several reasons why we may eventually end our professional relationship. You may decide you would prefer to work with a different provider. I may reach the conclusion you would be better served working with someone else. You may decide to relocate outside the state of Texas. There may be a consistent trend of cancellations or no-shows that we are unable to resolve despite attempts to address this issue.

Regardless of the case, I will try to discuss with you the reasons for discharging, and if you request, provide you with a list of other qualified providers. If necessary, I will try to extend the discharge process length to the extent possible, although there may be legal and practical limitations to how long this process can be extended.

Please note that ongoing failure to pay for treatment, attend sessions, or communicate with me in a respectful and timely manner can also result in discharge from my practice. For instance, if you no-show for 2 consecutive sessions and do not respond when I try to reach out to you within the following week, your case will be closed and our counseling relationship terminated. You can still reach out in the future to re-initiate therapy together, but we may need to discuss ways to prevent future no-shows from occurring.

In general, if we do not have another session scheduled, I will try to reach out to you to check in. However, if I do not hear back from you within 2 weeks, your case will be considered inactive. If 60 days pass from your last appointment, your case will be automatically closed and our counseling relationship will be considered terminated. After this 60-day window, you are still welcome to reach back out to re-initiate therapy together, but it may be necessary at that point to schedule another initial appointment together due to the amount of time that has passed since our last session.

In these instances, to ensure you have continued access to care, I will still make every reasonable effort to get in touch with you and if you request, provide referrals to a new provider before I consider our relationship ended.

Question 7

Contacting Us

Accepted Answer

Dr. Yin does not provide 24-hour crisis counseling. However, there are several crisis/emergency resources you can contact, which are listed in the section below.

Please note that Dr. Yin cannot guarantee the confidentiality of any communication through electronic media, including emails, phone calls, or text messages. Dr. Yin uses a HIPAA-compliant email inbox and maintains the confidentiality of what is received there, but your own email inbox may or may not be secure, and there may also be limits to the security of your internet. Furthermore, if you sent an email from a work-place computer, your employer can legally access those emails.

Emailing Dr. Yin is preferred over other communication means since emails are an easier way for both you and Dr. Yin to refer back to any ongoing discussion. Emails are more likely to receive a prompt reply, although you are able to call and leave a voicemail if necessary.

Dr. Yin is often not immediately available by telephone. Though she is usually in office between 9 AM and 5 PM, she probably will not answer the phone when she is in a session with another client. When she is unavailable, calls to her number will go to voicemail, which she monitors frequently. Dr. Yin will make every effort to return your call within 48 business hours, with the exception of weekends and holidays.

Dr. Yin cannot guarantee that texting is a secure or confidential means of communication and does not use this as a means of communication with clients. Dr. Yin’s business number does not receive text messages but does receive phone calls & voicemails. Again, email is the preferred means of communication with Dr. Yin.

If Dr. Yin will be unavailable for an extended time, she will provide the name of a colleague to contact, if necessary.

Question 8

Social Media

Accepted Answer

Dr. Yin does not accept friend or contact requests from current or former clients on any social networking site (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc). This is to protect your confidentiality, maintain my own privacy, and to minimize dual relationships. Connecting through social media can blur the boundaries of our therapeutic relationship and unintentionally impact our professional work together. If you have questions about this, please feel free to ask when we meet and we can address this further.

Question 9

Crisis & Emergency Resources

Accepted Answer

Dr. Yin does not provide 24-hour crisis counseling. If you have a life-threatening emergency, you should call 911 or go to the nearest hospital emergency room.

If you are having a mental health crisis, you can call some of the below resources:
988 | Suicide and Crisis Lifeline
1-800-273-TALK (8255) | National Suicide Prevention Lifeline
800-656-HOPE (4673) | National Sexual Assault Hotline
214-828-1000 | Dallas Suicide and Crisis Center
817-335-3022 | Ft. Worth/Tarrant County Crisis Line
800-762-0157 | Denton County Crisis Line
800-451-1659 | Ellis/Johnson/Navarro County Crisis Line
903-957-4701 | Grayson/Cooke/Fannin County Crisis Line

Policies & Procedures

Confidentiality

Billing & Payment

Late Cancellations, Late Reschedules, or No-Shows

Meetings

Teletherapy

Discharge Process

Contacting Us

Social Media

Crisis & Emergency Resources

Important Documents

1 / Informed Consent Form

2 / Intake Questionnaire

3 / Release of Information Form

4 / Termination Feedback