New Patient & Insurance Information
We would like to welcome you to The Mitchell Practice. Please read this information
as it includes administrative essentials which will enable us to provide our services
with the minimum of fuss.
ESSENTIAL INFORMATION WE REQUIRE
Home address to include your post code, this is essential if you are using health
insurance to fund your treatment. We also require your date of birth.
A home telephone number, a mobile number together with a daytime contact number
and an email address.
INSURANCE
We endeavour to help you utilise medical insurance where possible and ask that prior
to your initial appointment with us that you thoroughly check the conditions of
your policy. Every policy is different and each case is dealt with on an individual
basis both by us and by your insurers. Things to note in particular if you are using
health insurance to pay your account are the following:
Many insurers expect you to be referred for treatment by a formal route which includes
your GP and a specialist. If you are unsure about how this works give us a call
and we will help you to plan this to ensure that your insurance provider’s procedures
are met.
We need the following
- Provide us with the name of your insurance group.
- Membership No (and if appropriate Group Membership No).
- Pre-authorisation if this is a requirement of your policy. This is normally in the
form of a number unique to you.
Your insurers may indicate to you that a % of the fee for each session will be met
by them, this will mean you are liable for the remainder of the fee; once again
this will vary from policy to policy. If this is the case please settle direct with
us if the cost of your treatment is to be shared between you and your insurers,
this minimises unnecessary administration processes and difficulties that arise
with shared responsibility for the settlement of fees. It is our experience that
insurers reimburse patients far more quickly than settling directly with the Practice.
In the case of AXA PPP (see below), Allianz Worldwide Care and WPA we request that
you settle your account directly with us we will issue you with receipts which you
can then submit to your insurer for reimbursement.
BUPA have recently decided to change their conditions and we are no longer able
to treat BUPA patients as they will not cover our fees. The BUPA scheme does not
take account of our expertise nor the costs associated with working in Central London.
AXAPPP Personal Policies.
We took the decision to request payment directly from our patients because AXAPPP
do not cover the full cost of our fees. This resulted in increased administration
time managing accounts where responsibility for payment is split between the patient
and the insurance company; it has become unwieldy for both patient and for the practice
your co-operation is greatly appreciated.
AXAPPP’s approach
AXAPPP are one of the few health insurance companies that still require members
to be referred by a specialist rather than the GP. This is because AXAPPP do not
recognise clinical psychology as specialists in their own right; they are happy
to pay for treatment which is what a psychologist carries out but the diagnosis
has to be provided by a psychiatrist. This results in delays in accessing our services
because you have to be seen by a specialist usually a psychiatrist; we can organise
this with one of our colleagues Dr Eapen who is based in Marylebone or Dr Lipsedge who is based at 3 Jacobs Well Mews
How it works in reality
If you would be kind enough to settle your account directly with us at the end of
your appointment you will be provided with a stamped receipted invoice which you
can forward to AXAPPP requesting that the pay you. You will need to ensure that
you clearly instruct them to reimburse you.
There are three advantages to this.
- Your account is cleared on the day you use the service so no surprise accounts to
face at a later date.
- You are reimbursed for the exact amount that you are insured for which avoids confusion
about where the responsibility lies.
- The Mitchell Practice’s administration process is reduced considerably.
Special Notice
We would like to draw your attention to the fact that you are responsible for the
payment of fees in the event of any failure by your insurer to cover your treatment.
Please check your policy and advise us of any limitations.
CORPORATE REFERRALS / OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH REFERRALS AND HR REFERRALS
If you have been referred by your employer via occupational health, HR or via a
specialised scheme we ask you to provide us with a letter of referral together with
any request to initiate corporate insurance for funding.
If the firm is going to meet the cost of your fees an indication of the level of
funding your employer is prepared to meet is essential. We would also like to have
an individual to liaise with on your behalf and if you could let us know their name
as early as possible it would be appreciated. We would also appreciate an indication
from you that you are happy for us to liaise on your behalf?
APPOINTMENTS / CANCELLATION / MISSED APPOINTMENTS POLICY
Appointments can be made by telephone or if you prefer you can drop in and speak
to us. Our telephones are busy quite a lot of the time but you can leave a confidential
message (24 hours) and we will return the call. We may leave a discreet message
if you are unavailable. We try to give you a reminder call the day before your appointment
however this is not always possible. We do not make appointments by email.
We endeavour to offer you an initial appointment as quickly as possible. In order
to manage the demand we gratefully request that you give us at least 48 hours cancellation
notice. This enables us to offer the appointment slot to another person who may
be waiting. Your co-operation with this is very much appreciated.
A full fee will be charged if not less that 24 hours notice if given. If your appointment
is on a Monday we require cancellation notice by 10am on the previous Friday if
you are unable to keep your appointment failure to do so will incur a full fee.
Missed appointments are charged at full fee.
We will discuss fee scales with you when you are arranging to come in to see us
prior to your initial appointment.
PAYMENT
Please provide us with credit card details which we will keep on record until you
are discharged from our care. We use an industry standard secure system (SAGE LINE
50) and have several layers of security on our system to safeguard your personal
data.
Where payment is concerned we would appreciate settlement at the end of each session
and a receipt will be issues. If you are paying us following receipt of an account
we accept payment by cheque on or we can debit the card you supplied at the time
of registration. PLEASE INDICATE WHICH OPTION YOUR PREFER. IN THE EVENT OF 2 OR
MORE INVOICES BEING UNPAID WE WILL TAKE PAYMENT FROM YOUR CREDIT CARD.
(See separate note on insurance).
We hold information on our Database in line with current data protection legislation.
We do not share information with any third party other than your insurers. We require
written consent from you if any third party request information about you.
Do please telephone us to clarify any of the above points 02070366180
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