Policy FAQs

Nearly all of the information below has already been signed during the B2AW intake process. The following document has been created to answer the most frequently answered questions in one place. The most up-to-date information will be contained online via www.b2awellness.com.

Appointments

Cancellation or Rescheduling

    • Flexibility is King: At B2AW, flexibility is valued from your therapist to you and visa versa.  We have the best clients and thank you for your ultimate flexibility as we all work together to fashion this puzzle to accommodate the requests of so many clients, especially with changing schedules across the seasons (summer, holidays, sports, etc.)  
  • 2 Business Days Notice: The cancellation policy is 2 business days notice at a minimum,
    i.e By Monday for a Wednesday appointment or by Thursday for an appointment the following Monday. Please inform your therapist via Simple Practice portal, email or text 330-595-9006 (if comfortable) as soon as you know of any potential conflict with your scheduled appointment. Providing as much notice as possible enables your therapist to offer any newly opened appointments to a list of waiting clients.
  • Avoid the $50 cancellation fee:  If an appointment is canceled less than two business days, most clients still want to meet and avoid the $50 fee by rescheduling for a different day in the same week. If your therapist has a sudden need to change your appointment and another mutual time cannot be found, you will not be charged a $50 fee.
  • Rescheduling: Using the scheduling function on the website allows you to see the most up-to-date options to reschedule.  If you reach out to your therapist directly and are offered a few openings, by the time you respond, many of them will likely have been secured by other clients.  Please click here to access the scheduling widget for B2AW:
Location of Client and Therapist during your Remote Appointments
  • Ohio law currently allows you to have your appointment only if you are physically located in the state of Ohio during the time of your appointment.As soon as you know of any travel that may take you outside of Ohio, please reschedule your appointments that would occur during the time that you are out of state.
  • However, Ohio law does allow your therapist to continue to provide care for you anywhere, even the remotest part of the world, with a reliable connection of course.
Appointment Frequency and Consistency
  • Most clients are seen weekly initially and progress to bi-weekly as they move through their treatment program. Research has shown that sustained progress is quite challenging for those who consistently are available less than the recommended treatment frequency, especially in the earlier treatment phases.  
  • If you start to miss or need to reschedule more than 3 appointments in a relatively short time period, a discussion may occur about the capacity for counseling at this time in your life or fit with your therapist.  At B2AW, your overall mental health and wellbeing is paramount and we will work to address all known barriers.
  • If you will be gone longer than 30 days, policy indicates that your file will need to be closed.  Services can resume by completing another intake upon your return to Ohio.

Providing a Confidential Space

While it is typically the easiest to provide a confidential environment for sessions held in person, when you log in remotely, please do all you can to ensure a confidential space. This means informing family members or roommates of your weekly appointment day and time and then reminding them that you’ll be unavailable for the next 45 to 53 minutes. 

Running Late

If you are running late, please inform your therapist of your delay if you can do so in a safe manner.  If you will be more than 20 minutes late, ask your therapist as your appointment may need to be rescheduled.  Insurance does not allow appointments less than 30 minutes to be billed.  Ohio laws indicate that you cannot be in a moving vehicle, even as a passenger, during a therapy session.

Current address during session

If you are ever in a different location than your home or office address on file, please provide the address at the beginning of the session in case of emergency.  Please provide any address updates as soon as you move.

Coordination of Care


Having set times to update parents

For minors, working with you as the parents provides the best chances of sustained progress.  Ideally, a check in, even a few minutes at the beginning and end of a session, is suggested weekly and, at a minimum, monthly.  For parents not available during the main counseling time, please coordinate a time to check in with your child’s therapist.  You know your child the best and can inform his\her therapist of progress, what has been most\least effective, and are integral to continue to inform treatment beyond the first meeting.  Treatment plans are reviewed every 90 days and your feedback is critical.  Confidentially will still be maintained and B2AW asks you to respect that not everything shared by your child can be shared with you.  

Providing a Confidential Space Time outside of sessions

Any time outside of sessions over 5 minutes will be charged a Coordination of Care fee ($25 for each 15 minutes). This is used to coordinate care with parents, your doctors, for any paperwork requested by your doctors, other providers, attorneys, courts, school teams, etc.  We wish we did not have charge you for time to coordinate care but as a practice that is known for “going above and beyond” with the various entities that support you and your family, the policy has to be enforced.

This policy also applies to extra sessions to coordinate care with parents after an appointment with the doctor, psychiatrist, school team, etc.  For example, therapist meets with your child at school or in a regular appointment and can bill the main appointment via insurance.  Parent and therapist talk after these appointments to outline next steps. This often is billed as a separate appointment and may not be covered by insurance, especially if it is the same date of service. 

B2AW will go to extremes to track down medical providers including the time to create and fax treatment summaries with your Release of Information. Rather than submit multiple bills, a summary of the attempts plus the actual consult wll be charged on the date the consult occurs.  A common example is provided below with this info appearing on your invoice:   
5 attempts to reach provider (10 mins)  + Fax summary (5 mins)  +  Consult (10 mins) = $25 charge 

A coordination of care fee is not assessed for brief calls to change or update appointments; however, a charge does occur to review care and update treatment plans outside of regular appointment times.  If you are ever unsure if time spent on the phone or in person will be billed via insurance or private, please ask early in the conversation with your therapist who can clarify.  

Confidentiality cannot be guaranteed with parent updates sent via email. While the input is greatly needed and appreciated, your therapist may only respond with a simple “thank you” to minimize the risk. 


Transmission of contagious illness

Well we continue to learn to adapt in this COVID era, we ask for your understanding for last minute appointment changes.  Please inform your therapist as soon as possible if you have come in contact with anyone or with anything that could be contagious.  Out of respect for all the families we come in contact with each week and those of us caring for the elderly or with a compromised Immunity, please inform your therapist ASAP of any potential contact with someone with COVID or another contagious illness even after your appointment has finished. You will not be charged the $50 late cancellation fee for canceling an appointment due to a desire to protect others.  Please check the CDC and our doctor for the latest guidelines.  Thank you.

 

Connectivity

B2AW strives to offer several HIPAA-compliant options to connect.  Your primary method will be provided through a login link typically texted to you 2 days prior from B2AW via Simple Practice.If you ever receive any appointment requests or updates from Headway or B2AW’s Google calendar, please ignore them as they are merely back up login options or could be a former meeting time. Occasionally, Simple Practice’s bandwidth is not as strong as we would like or your WiFi location prefers another option.  We will log in via Simple Practice first and agree to switch to any of the following backup options with a link provided in the Simple Practice chat and\or emailed to you from kmetzler@b2awellness.com:  Google Meet, possibly from Headway, PsychToday or any other number of HIPAA- compliant options to ensure we have a way to connect.  Each client has their own custom and private Google Meet back up log in option just in case.