Thank you for entrusting Shaikh & Associates with your care. We strive to create a safe, comfortable environment in which to provide clients with empathic, state-of-the-art care for a variety of concerns. This information sheet is designed to familiarize you with our practice and to answer frequently asked questions.
LOCATIONS
Our office is located 111 North Wabash Ave, The Garland Building #1003 , Chicago, IL 60602 conveniently located in the loop.
CONTACTING US
Please feel free to contact Dr. Shaikh, the practice owner, at 312-999-7114 with any concerns or questions you may have. You may also email Dr. Shaikh at tshaikh@shaikhassociates.com. Dr. Shaikh will typically return your call or respond to your email within 24 hours on business days
CONFIDENTIALITY
In general, the privacy of all communications between a patient and a psychologist is protected by law, and we can only release information about our work to others with your written permission. However, there are the following exceptions:
- In most legal proceedings, you have the right to prevent us from providing any information about your treatment. In some proceedings involving child custody and those in which your emotional condition is an important issue, a judge may order our testimony if he/she determines that the issues require it.
- There are some situations in which we are legally obligated to take action to protect others from harm, even if we have to reveal some information about our treatment. For example, if we believe that a child, elderly person, or disabled person is being abused, we are required to file a report with the appropriate state agency.
- If we believe that you are threatening serious bodily harm to another, we are required to take protective actions. These actions may include notifying the potential victim, contacting the police, or seeking hospitalization for you. If you threaten to harm yourself, we may be obligated to seek hospitalization for you or to contact family members or others who can help provide protection.
If a similar situation occurs, we will make every effort to fully discuss it with you before taking any action.
TERMINATION
Therapy is unique in that its ultimate goal is for you to be ready to leave therapy. It also provides an opportunity to practice a very important life skill: talking through the emotions associated with ending a relationship, and saying goodbye in a positive and relationship-affirming way. Because of this, we believe that having an identified termination session is a very important part of therapy. Termination sessions are an important time to develop closure by reviewing what you’ve learned about yourself, which goals you haven’t reached in therapy and what to do about them, how to maintain your gains, and how you feel about the relationship ending. This is why we encourage you to address the following questions with your therapist during the first few sessions: “under what conditions will we end, and what will that ending look like?”
FEES & BILLING
The initial diagnostic session(s) are billed at $225. Thereafter, sessions are billed at $175 for 45-minute
sessions, and at $200 for 60-minute sessions. In-network rates apply for BCBS PPO. We are happy to
accept payments in cash, check (made out to Shaikh & Associates), or credit card (in the office or by
phone). Returned Check Policy: If you pay by check and that check is returned to us for any reason you
will be charged your entire balance due, any returned check fees charged to us, and a $50 fee to cover
our billing services management.
We are an in-network provider with Blue Cross Blue Shield PPO and Blue Choice Plans. Our billing
department offers a preliminary verification of benefits before your scheduled appointment, so please
have your insurance card available when you call to schedule an appointment. Please note that
verification of benefits is not a guarantee of payment by the insurance company. We will provide you with
whatever assistance we can in helping you receive the benefits to which you are entitled; however, you
(not your insurance company) are responsible for full payment of fees. It is very important that you find
out exactly what mental health services your insurance policy covers.
You should also be aware that most insurance companies require that we provide them with your clinical
diagnosis. Sometimes they request that we provide additional clinical information, such as treatment
plans, progress notes or summaries, or copies of the entire record (in rare cases). This information will
become part of the insurance company files. Though all insurance companies claim to keep such
information confidential, we have no control over what they do with it once it is in their hands. In some
cases, they may share the information with a National Medical Information Databank. We will provide you
with a copy of any records we submit, if you request it. You understand that, by using your insurance,
you authorize us to release such information to your insurance company. We will try to keep that
information limited to the minimum necessary.
In addition to therapy, we offer comprehensive neuropsychological testing for adults and children. This
testing can help with differential diagnosis (e.g., for AD/HD, dyslexia (reading disorder), autism spectrum
disorder) and treatment planning (you will receive a written report including a detailed list of helpful
interventions that can be used at home, at school, and at work). A full battery may include rating scales,
an intelligence test, neuropsychological testing, a continuous performance test, achievement testing as
appropriate, personality testing, a semi-structured interview, and school observations (if applicable).
Charges vary depending on the comprehensiveness of the battery but typically range from $1800 –
$2500.
Other services include attendance at school meetings (e.g., IEP meetings) as a support person (charged
at $200 per hour), and court appearances (charged at $2000 for a half day or $4000 for a full day). School
and court meetings are not covered by insurance and must be fully paid in advance.
A flat fee of $30 applies for any paperwork completed by clinicians (e.g. letters written for ADA accommodations, FMLA paperwork, etc.). A fee of $5, with an additional fee of $1 per page, will apply for any records requested by a client (this is exclusive of 2 copies per neuropsychological testing report that are provided at the feedback session). Phone contacts lasting 5 minutes or less are complimentary. Phone contacts made for purposes of coordination of treatment, with clients, clients’ families, or other care providers, will be charged at a rate of $20 for phone contacts lasting 6 – 14 minutes, and $45 forphone calls lasting 15 – 29 minutes. Phone calls lasting 30 minutes or longer will be charged at the full session rate of $150. Please be advised that insurance will not reimburse for phone contacts.
We complete billing on a weekly basis and our office manager sends out invoices on a monthly basis (typically the first week of the month). Please be mindful that it often takes a few weeks for insurances to process claims, and so there may be a delay between your initial session and your first bill. Please note the following billing policies:
- We will file with insurance for all clients who are insured with BCBS PPO and Blue Choice. We are unable to bill directly with other insurance carriers, but you can choose to self-pay and we are happy to provide you with the necessary paperwork to submit to your insurance company for out-of-network reimbursement.
- Please be aware that we are unable to schedule appointments for clients carrying a balance of more than $300.
- We require a deposit of $500 toward any neuropsychological testing initiated. The deposit is required after the initial intake session, but before the actual testing session. If insurance coverage plus the deposit exceeds the cost of the testing, the difference will be refunded to you within seven days.
CITY OF CHICAGO INSURANCE AND TELLIGEN
Please note: if you are a City of Chicago employee, your health insurance covers 7 sessions of therapy per calendar year. In order to gain approval for additional sessions to be covered, your therapist will need to contact Telligen, a medical review company contracted with the City of Chicago, and provide them with clinical information about your diagnosis, functioning, and treatment. This clinical information goes beyond the information that you generally agree to have your provider give to the health insurance company when you initially sign up for health insurance, and includes diagnosis, treatment goals, dates of treatment, type of treatment used, and possibly other written records (such as progress notes) that your therapist keeps about your care. If clinical information is not provided to Telligen, Blue Cross/Blue Shield will automatically deny any coverage past the 7th session. If you decide that you agree to have your clinician provide clinical information to Telligen, you will need to complete a release of information for Telligen (on the following page). Of course, you have the right to review any documentation before we send it to Telligen before we send it. If you decide that you would rather not have your clinician share any clinical information, you can pay for sessions after the 7th session as a self-pay client and then request reimbursement from BCBS afterward. We will be happy to assist you in completing the paperwork to do this.
CANCELLATION POLICY
If for any reason you need to cancel or reschedule an appointment, please provide your doctor with at
least 24 hours notice (48 hours on weekends) by either calling her cell phone or emailing her .
Cancellations or changes to appointments with less than 24 hours’ notice will be charged to the client at
the full session fee ($150). Missed neuropsychological testing will be charged per hour that was originally
blocked out for the testing (typically three to four hours), so if a testing session must be cancelled, it is
very important that you do so in a timely manner.
SUPERVISION AND CONSULTATION
We believe that continuing to grow and develop as therapists requires ongoing consultation and supervision. We may seek professional consultation from other clinicians at Shaikh & Associates. All discussions among staff and supervisors are held in confidence and are for the purpose of providing the best possible client care. When consulting, clinicians take significant measures to hide the identity of their clients.