Fees & Rebates
What fees are involved?
Each counselling session is approximately 50 minutes in duration and our current fee schedule (as of 1 July 2011) is as follows:

Individual Counselling Sessions           $145.00 (50 minutes)
Couple / Family Counselling Session    $145.00 (50 minutes)
Healthcare Card Holder Session          $115.00 (50 minutes)

Please note the above fees are significantly less then the fee of $212 per session currently recommended by the Australian Psychological Society.

Appointment Cancellations & Outstanding Accounts
We require 2 working days notice if you are unable to attend a scheduled appointment.  If you do not provide 2 working days notice, you will be charged a cancellation fee (100% of the usual session fee). 

Accounts are generally payable on the day of your session. An administration/ legal fee will be added to your account to cover our costs in managing unpaid accounts.

Private Health Insurance Rebates
Many private health insurance funds provide a rebate for services provided by a Registered Psychologist. We encourage you to contact your health insurance fund to find out whether your policy covers services provided by a Registered Psychologist. Our Psychologists are registered as providers with most private health funds.  Unfortunately, HBF currently does not provide a rebate for services provided by Registered Psychologists.

Can I claim a rebate from Medicare?
As part of the federal government's Better Access to Mental Health Care initiative eligible clients can receive a rebate from Medicare for psychological services.

In order to obtain a rebate from Medicare, your General Practitioner or Psychiatrist must complete a Mental Health Treatment Plan with you and refer you to a Psychologist. You will need to bring a referral letter from your doctor to your appointment with the Psychologist. Once a Mental Health Treatment Plan and referral letter have been completed by your doctor, you will be able to obtain a Medicare rebate of $83.25 per session, for up to 10 sessions per calendar year. You must visit your referring doctor after attending 6 counselling sessions, to ascertain whether further sessions are appropriate under your Mental Health Treatment Plan and if so, you may be referred for a further 4 sessions. Our practice offers the Medicare Easyclaim service, which allows clients to claim their Medicare rebates ?on the spot? through our EFTPOS terminal. The Easyclaim service is convenient for most clients because they save time by not attending a Medicare office. If you wish to utilise the Easyclaim service, please bring your current Medicare and EFTPOS cards to each session.

You will not be able to claim any rebate from Medicare unless your doctor has completed a Mental Health Treatment Plan prior to your counselling appointment. Please note that Medicare rebates are not available for couple/family counselling sessions, even if you have a Mental Health Treatment Plan.