Our Fees

With fees starting at $290/hr for psychological treatment, we charge at or below the Australian Association of Psychologists Inc Recommended Fees for Psychologists, which are reviewed each financial year. The fee for each consultation is payable at the end of each session via cash or credit card payment.

For Telehealth clients, we require credit card details, which will be securely stored and charged following each session.

Our Cancellation Policy

If, for some reason you need to cancel or postpone your appointment, you are required to provide at least 24 hours’ notice, otherwise you will be charged the cost for the session.

We have a strict cancellation policy because we are unable to schedule another client into your scheduled appointment time if less than 24 hours’ notice is provided.

Medicare

  • Our Practice is a private practice and does not “bulk-bill” our psychological consultations.

  • The medicare rebate is not available for forensic treatment. However, for individuals seeking mental health treatment, Medicare rebates may apply.

    Under the Australian government’s “Better Access initiative”, Medicare gives rebates to eligible people (i.e. people with a diagnosed mental disorder) of up to:

    • 10 individual allied health mental services each calendar year; and

    • 10 group allied health mental services each calendar year.

    These services can be in-person or via telehealth.

  • In order to access the Medicare Rebate, you must first obtain a Mental Health Treatment Plan from your General Practitioner. The Mental Health Treatment Plan identifies the health care you need and the goals you and your General Practitioner wants to achieve.

    A General Practitioner can refer you for an initial course of psychological treatment and in his/her Mental Health Treatment Plan, your General Practitioner must state the specific number of sessions required (with a maximum of 6 sessions).

    If further treatment is needed after the initial course of treatment, your General Practitioner will need to refer you for a further course of treatment through a standard Referral Letter. A new Mental Health Treatment Plan is not needed.

    Mental Health Treatment Plans do not expire and a new Mental Health Treatment Plan is only needed where it is clinically required (i.e. change in condition).

  • After paying the full consultation fee, we can make a claim on your behalf using Medicare Easyclaim.

    The amount that can be claimed as part of the Medicare Rebate is currently $93.35 (psychologist) or $137.05 (clinical psychologist) for an in-person or telehealth psychological consultation. This amount is indexed per annum.

    All Medicare Benefits are paid electronically through your nominated bank account.

  • Relationship counselling does not qualify for Medicare Rebates under the “Better Access initiative”. This is the case even when a mental disorder is present in both parties to the relationship counselling. However, clients may wish to briefly involve their partner at some point during their course of treatment if this is therapeutically needed, however, it should not compromise the primary focus of a course of treatment being the individual.

Private Health Insurance

  • This depends on:

    • the type of Private Health Insurance you have purchased;

    • what is covered under your particular policy; and

    • the terms of your policy.

    Generally speaking, psychological services are covered under “General Treatment” policies, also known as “Ancillary or Extras Cover”.

  • If psychological services are covered under your Private Health Insurance policy, you will have to speak to your Private Health Insurer regarding how much of each of your consultations are claimable. You will be required to pay the “out of pocket” or “gap” in fees that are not claimable for your psychological service.

    Usually, there is a dollar limit on what you are allowed to claim throughout each calendar year for psychological services.

  • You do not need to see a General Practitioner to obtain a referral first, nor do you need a Mental Health Treatment Plan.

  • No. You will have to elect whether you wish to make a claim through your Private Health Insurance or Medicare for the same service.

    You also cannot use your Private Health Insurance to make a claim on any “out of pocket” or “gap” in fees you are required to pay after the Medicare Rebate.

    In most cases, individuals will exhaust their entitlements under the Medicare Scheme prior to accessing their entitlements under their Private Health Insurance or vice versa.

  • These are various ways to make a claim, however this process can vary from each Private Health Insurer.

    Generally, claims can be made in one of the following ways:

    • Swiping your Health Fund Membership Card when paying for the service through our Practice’s HICAP’s machine. Your rebate will then be automatically deducted from the fee for service and you will only be required to pay for the difference between the fee and the amount covered by your Private Health Insurer.

    • You can lodge a claim through your Private Health Insurer’s website.

    • You can lodge a claim through your Private Health Insurer’s dedicated App.

    • You can print out the required claim forms and submit them to your Private Health Insurer by mail.

  • If you have suffered from a psychological injury and you have an accepted WorkCover or TAC claim for your psychological injury, then you would be entitled to claim for the “reasonable cost” of psychological treatment.

    Prior to obtaining psychological services, it is important that you obtain a medical referral from your General Practitioner first.

  • The payment of the “reasonable cost” of psychological treatment does not mean the full cost of the psychological treatment. In most instances, there will an “out of pocket” or “gap” between the cost of the psychological service and what WorkSafe or the TAC will cover.

  • You can make a claim through WorkCover for our services by:

    1. Scanning or taking a photo of your receipt for our services.

    2. Sending it to your WorkCover insurer or Worksafe within 6 months of the treatment.

    3. Your WorkCover insurer or WorkSafe will then reimburse you directly.

    You can make a claim through the TAC for our services by:

    1. Scanning or taking a photo of your receipt for our services.

    2. Sending it to the TAC with the Reimbursement Form under “Upload documents” via the TAC website or by email to info@tac.vic.gov.au.

    3. The TAC will then reimburse you directly.

Workcover and TAC Claims

Do you offer psychological services to participants of the NDIS?

Unfortunately we do not offer psychological services under the NDIS Scheme as we are not a registered NDIS provider.  However, we can offer psychological services to clients who have a self-managed NDIS plan.  Once psychological services are rendered and paid for, clients can make a Payment Request to have money from their NDIS plan budget reimbursed into their nominated bank account.

National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS)

Department of Veteran Affairs (DVA) card holders

Unfortunately we do not offer psychological services to DVA card holders who are wishing to access psychological services payable by the DVA.