Question 1

Do you accept insurance?

Accepted Answer

I am not contracted with any insurance companies. However, many of my clients receive significant reimbursement for our work using out-of-network benefits.  If you do not know what your out-of-network benefits are for outpatient behavioral health, you can look at your policy documents or call your insurance company to request that information.  In some instances, I am also able to contract with your insurance company on a single case basis.

I realize that navigating insurance can be difficult.  While I do require payment at the time of service, I am happy to either provide you with a completed superbill (the form insurance requires for reimbursement requests) to submit to insurance or, at your request, I can do this for you electronically, which can speed up the process considerably.  I am also happy to help you sort through all of this if it feels too confusing, just reach out to me with any questions you have.

Question 2

How much do sessions cost?

Accepted Answer

Intake Session: Our initial intake session will be scheduled for 60 minutes at a rate of $350, which includes a thorough review of all of your intake documents, analysis of your intake assessments, initial correspondence with any relevant current or prior providers, and development of an initial treatment plan.  Because the initial intake requires significant time to prepare for, you will be charged for this session 48 hours in advance.  All subsequent sessions will be charged overnight following the service.

Follow-Up Sessions: All standard individual, couple, and family therapy sessions are either 45 or 60-minutes long and billed at a rate of $225 or $275, respectively.  Sessions of longer and shorter durations are sometimes indicated and billed at a commiserate rate.

Question 3

Are there any other fees?

Accepted Answer

Care Management: Eating and feeding disorders are complex disorders that require comprehensive care.   Best practices include establishing a multidisciplinary team.  Collaboration among these team members is vital to establish and maintain consistent messaging and treatment objectives throughout the full course of your care.  As part of our work together,  I will help you build a team of providers (if needed) and facilitate regular and consistent communication among those team members.  This means that, given my significant experience treating the symptoms of eating/feeding disorders, I will assume the role of treatment “team captain” unless another equally experienced provider has already been established as part of the team.

In addition, I may provide other care management services to you as part of your treatment.  These may include, for instance, developing meal plans, providing detailed feedback and suggestions on daily caloric intake, text support, academic support requests, and report writing.  These services are billed in 15-minute increments at $50 each and will generally be no more than 15 or 30 minutes ($50 - $100) in any given week.  Early in treatment, however, these services are typically more time-consuming and can range from 30 - 90 minutes ($100 - $300) per week.

As a standard of my practice, these services will not exceed 60 minutes per week for the first 4 weeks of treatment and 30 minutes per week every week following that without prior authorization from you.  Further, although it is not routinely provided, you may request a report detailing how that time was specifically used at any point and for any time-period throughout your treatment.

If you would like to discuss a modification of these parameters (for instance in terms of duration spent without prior authorization) please let me know and a reasonable alternative will be considered.

Assessments: Prior to our initial appointment, I will send you several standardized assessments.  As part of the initial intake , I will compile and review these results and use that information to help inform treatment planning.

At your request, I can compile those results and provide that information to you in the form of an assessment report.  This generally takes about 2-hours to complete and is billed at a rate of $50/15-minutes (approximately $400 in total).  I generally readminister these assessments every 3-4 months throughout our work together to assess your progress and potential areas in need of further attention.  Upon request, I can provide this comparison data to you in the form of a cumulative assessment report, which generally takes about 60 ($200)-minutes to complete.  If you are a parent or caregiver of a minor age 14-years or older, I will need your child’s consent before sharing this information.

Question 4

Do you offer a reduced a sliding scale or reduced rate?

Accepted Answer

I reserve a small number of slots in my practice to offer at a reduced cost.  These slots are currently full but I can place you on a waitlist for future openings upon request.

Question 5

What is your cancellation policy?

Accepted Answer

Unless under unusual and unavoidable circumstances, cancellations and change requests will be subject to a charge of 100% of the billable rate if not received at least 48 business hours in advance. This is necessary because a time commitment is made to you and is held exclusively for you.

If you are late for a session, we will likely need to end our session as scheduled so I can meet with my next client at their scheduled time.  Fees for that session will not be adjusted to account for that lost time.

Question 6

How often will we meet?

Accepted Answer

Although it is ultimately up to you decide the frequency of our sessions, early on in treatment, it will probably be most effective for us to meet 1-2 times per week.  As our work together progresses, we will likely find the frequency of our sessions changing to adapt to your evolving needs.

Question 7

What if it isn't a good fit?

Accepted Answer

Our relationship is one of the most important parts of the work we will do.  Finding a therapist you like and feel connected with will help you do the hard work that is needed to make the kind of progress that is possible in therapy.   This process is about you and the change you want to see in your life.  If it isn't a good fit for any reason, I will do whatever I can to help you find another qualified provider who is.

Question 8

How do we get started?

Accepted Answer

If you are ready to get started, you can reach out to me here to schedule an initial intake or free 15-minute consultation.

Zanita B. Zody PhD

EATING DISORDER TREATMENT

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS