$8,000 Invoice from Social Worker

[Foolish1]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Georgia

I'm not sure if I'm posting in the correct forum so please forgive me.
Brief background of my dilemma.
My teenage son suffers from social disorders and my wife and I decided to have him evaluated by a psychologist (her business card states social worker) to gain a better understanding of how we may help him. Upon the first visit, she explained to us that she would charge us $400 per session and the evaluation would require 5 to 6 sessions. OK, so $2000 to $2400. Not cheap but we thought it would be worth it if she could help us.
It ended up taking 10 sessions for her to complete her evaluation so we ended up paying her $4000. Now the kicker, after the final session, she tells us that she still needs to “decipher the data” and write her report. After about two weeks she sends us the report (15 pages long) and another invoice to to the deciphering and typing of the report. Another 20 hrs @ $200 per hour! Another $4000 invoice.
So if you are keeping count, the final total was $8000!
We have not yet paid the last invoice and my question is simply what recourse do I have? She is threatening to report it and we don’t want any delinquency to hurt our credit score.
Thank you.

 

[tranquility]

What did your written contract say about fees?

 

[cbg]

What kind of mental health benefits does your health insurance policy cover?

 

[Foolish1]

Thanks for the replies. Unfortunately, my health insurance does not cover any over it and she did not take my insurance anyway.

We did not sign any contract. All the payments were due at the time of treatment so we were paying the balance in full as we went along.
Is there some kind of ethics board or state board I can present this to?

Thank you again.

 

[LdiJ]

Thanks for the replies. Unfortunately, my health insurance does not cover any over it and she did not take my insurance anyway.

We did not sign any contract. All the payments were due at the time of treatment so we were paying the balance in full as we went along.
Is there some kind of ethics board or state board I can present this to?

Thank you again.

20 hours to write a report on her sessions with your son seems to me to be incredibly excessive. In addition to the fact that she did not tell you up front (before the sessions ever started) that you would be required to pay an additional hourly charge for her decypher the data and to write up the report. It all seems somewhat unethical to me.

I also find it odd that she is threatening to put it on your credit report rather than threatening to sue you.

You might contact your state's medical licensing board to see if they can give you any advice on how to proceed.

 

[commentator]

If the woman is even licensed. I think I'd tell her to go pound sand. since there was no written agreement concerning fees, and this charge for hours and hours of "interpreting the data" which was not included in the fee for the sessions seems incredibly excessive, and would be found to be by anyone who knows anything about what psychologists and social workers actually do, I think you're being gouged.

 

[ecmst12]

How long do you all think it should take to write a 15 page report? It doesn't sound that excessive to me.

Of course, if she's not a Licensed Clinical Social Worker or Licensed Clinical Psychologist, none of it was legal, but I suspect she would not break the law that blatently. The initials signed after her name would tell you what kind of license she has, and you can verify that with whatever licensing board.

Personally, I would have gone with someone who takes my insurance, but are you sure you can't get reimbursed for a portion if you submit the claims yourself?

 

[tranquility]

I'm still not sure what is happening so I can't add much. I do know it is unlikely I would pay more than I already had without really forcing the issue. But, "forcing the issue" depends on all the facts. The job that was done, the verbal agreement, the qualifications, the licensing and many other factors. There are many ways to twist people who get too greedy.

 

[LdiJ]

I'm still not sure what is happening so I can't add much. I do know it is unlikely I would pay more than I already had without really forcing the issue. But, "forcing the issue" depends on all the facts. The job that was done, the verbal agreement, the qualifications, the licensing and many other factors. There are many ways to twist people who get too greedy.

One of my thoughts is that $400.00 an hour is already on the high side for the actual sessions...adding that 200.00 an hour for 20 hours to decypher the data and write up a report is really out there.

 

[Foolish1]

One of my thoughts is that $400.00 an hour is already on the high side for the actual sessions...adding that 200.00 an hour for 20 hours to decypher the data and write up a report is really out there.

She charged $200 per hour and each session was 2 hours.

I wanted to follow up that I spoke with the therapist late Friday and even referenced that I was getting interaction on an on-line forum. She agreed to cut the final invoice in half so I agreed to pay it. In the end, my wife and I spent $6,000 for this evaluation. I guess we learned a lesson along the way.
Thanks again for the responses here.

 

[ecmst12]

I hope you got some information that will be helpful to your child.