Insurance
Lifescapes is happy to file insurance claims for our clients. Most of our clinicians are network-credentialed providers for Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna, MedCost, Aetna, Magellan, and United Behavioral Health, United Health Care, Optum and others. If you have out of network mental health benefits, we will be happy to file your claim, but generally your out-of-pocket expense will be greater than if you were utilizing in-network benefits. Our office staff will be happy to assist you with authorizations, pre-certifications, and understanding your mental health benefits. We also provide services for several Employee Assistance Programs.
We do our best to verify your benefits prior to your initial session so that you know your out of pocket cost for treatment prior to beginning therapy. Unfortunately, because mental health benefits are a separate ancillary benefit from one's standard medical coverages, we are sometimes provided with inaccurate information initially, and will correct your out of pocket responsibility once we receive the explanation of benefit from your insurance carrier. However, you will always receive a good faith estimate of your-out-of-pocket cost prior to beginning treatment (see "no surprises act" below for more information).
Most of the time, your outpatient mental health copay is not listed on your insurance card. Please note that we are not considered "specialists" so your specialist copay does not apply. However, for some plans the specialist copay and your mental health office visit copay may coincidentally be the same amount.
Coverage for Psychological Testing is complicated and varies significantly from carrier to carrier and from plan to plan. While mental health care is a required benefit for almost all health insurance plans*, psychological testing is not a required benefit. We do our best to determine the level of coverage your plan offers for testing in advance, and are happy to advocate for our patients regarding coverage issues.
*Federal regulations allow for certain coverage exceptions in self-employed plans for employer groups with less than 50 employees.
Reduced Fee
In an effort to make our services affordable and accessible, we also offer a sliding scale fee that is based on household income and your ability to pay. Please call our office at 919-303-0273 for more specific information. Reduced fee services are available on a limited basis. At times we have clinical Interns on staff thru a collaborative agreement with NCSU's Graduate program in Counseling, which allows us to offer services at a reduced rate.
Cancellation Policy
There is a $60 fee for no shows and appointments cancelled within 24 hours of the scheduled time. We do not charge a fee for appointments cancelled due to illness or emergency situations.
Payments & Billing
Our billing system does not generate a patient charge until we receive an electronic explanation of payment from your insurance company. Therefore, clients will receive a notification of a charge around 4-14 days after their appointment. However, to reduce confusion, our staff will run credit cards on file for established patients with a known copay 2 days after an appointment. Therefore, please disregard these automatic balance notifications if you already have a credit card on file.
Cash, check and major credit cards are accepted for payment, either at our office, or online. For an easier way to pay, we will happily charge your choice of credit card after every session to save you a little time. If interested, please submit a request for our encrypted and HIPAA compliant CREDIT CARD AUTOMATIC PAYMENT form. For teletherapy clients, we will request that you place a credit card on file.
Please click here for our NO SURPRISES ACT DISCLOSURE
Patient Portal
We now offer a patient portal to provide easy communication, efficient payments, and access to helpful information. Invitations to register your patient portal are sent along with initial paperwork to your email. If you did not receive an invitation, please let us know and we can quickly resend it. You can log in or register your portal at https://portal.kareo.com. Use your patient portal to:
- Easily message your provider or our staff
- View medication lists
- Access treatment information: limited to allergies, medications, vital signs, appointment dates, and diagnoses
- View, print, or download billing statements
- Make online payments
You may also add/edit/delete credit cards saved to your account, but this can only be done while processing a payment thru the portal. You may also manually submit a replacement credit card without making a payment by completing this webform: CREDIT CARD AUTOMATIC PAYMENT