Dear Associate & Student Therapists, Patient Fee Changes The London Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy last raised its patient fees on 12th September 2006, adding £7.00 administration charges to the previous 1/000th of income. In the teeth of the recession, we are going to raise them again, anyway! (While overall volumes of new patients and the quality of the fees attained do seem lower in the 'credit crunch' times, and while the banking sector which were quite heavy users of our services have largely disappeared, we appreciate that costs of living have risen too.) The new rate was published on the website in late September. The rate is: £10.00 plus 1/1000th of annual income. So, this is a three pound increase. This will make the starting fee rate for the standard fee scale £30.00 This will net you at £21.50 after room fees. The average fee rate is currently £38.39 and should then increase to £42.34. The average hourly net to associate therapists will be £33.84 after room fees. (Pro rata annual equivalent is £60k per year) This applies to both the standard & the low-fee schemes. However, we are not applying new rates to existing patients seen in the low-fee scheme. If possible, please do renegotiate an increase of £3 to £5 with your existing patients. If it is helpful, you can ask The London Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy to email your existing patients notifying them of the group practice increase & advising them that you might be discussing this with them. Increased Room Charges The London Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy has held its hourly room fee charges at £7.00 for over four years now. With effect from 1st November 2008, the hourly room rate will increase to £8.50. So this is an increase of £1.50 Receptionist resources to be added We have had to decide for reception facilities. These will be at Cobb Street. We anticipate that the reception facilities will be in place for 31st January 2008. The reason for this is largely that therapists taking assessments are not receiving patients well, and that the low-fee scheme has been significantly expanded over the last six months, and requires administration support. All patients (existing & new) will be advised to report initially to reception. The receptionist will then advise you that the patient has arrived. You can then contact the receptionist again when you are ready to receive the patient. In order to facilitate that without noise interruption to your session, this will be done by SMS text. Cobb Street will have a receptionist available between 7.30am to 9.30pm on weekdays and between 9.00 am and 4pm on weekends. Wentworth Street The receptionist will mean that there will be no waiting room at Wentworth Street. The current waiting room on the 2nd floor will be kitted out as a normal clinical room. Student Therapist Programme 1. Fee Payments With the reception resources, the patients will be asked to return to reception at the end of each session. They will be asked to make payment for that session to reception, and to confirm the next appointment.
2. Remitted Fees From 1st November, all fees in excess of £15.00 will be pooled and paid over to the student associate group. This will be done on the following basis. The sum of all fees in excess of £15.00 taken in that month will be totalled. The sum total will then be allocated based on the number of sessions taken by each particular student therapist as a percentage of the total number of sessions provided by the group in that month.
As ever, we would be grateful for any feedback. In particular, any clinical problems that you feel the introduction of a receptionist might cause your practice. Best Regards,
Donald Kirkpatrick & Yoko Kirkpatrick | 
