Hi, this is Dave Kats, of Therapist Consultants and I have a tip for you.

You know I've noticed that good therapists all use an informed consent form. So I hope you are using an informed consent form. Now if you're not using an informed consent form you should start doing it right away and just go through everything in your practice and tell the patient how it functions so there is no surprises for them. You can find a lot of good informed consent forms on the internet and if you are a client of ours you can find it on our website. We have a very good informed consent form. So that is the first thing you should do. If you are not doing one you should do it immediately. Most of you are already using an informed consent form and you have the patient sign it on the first visit. That’s the right idea. That’s the thing to do. But maybe you need to update your informed consent form. Does your informed consent form talk about distance coaching? Does it talk about tele-therapy?...

Hi, this is Dave Kats with Therapist Consultant and I have a tip for you.

This is mostly for people doing marriage counseling but it's also for people that treat anxiety and depression and things like that. That is a new trend that I see with therapists is to go to double sessions. In other words, if you have a marriage that's in crisis or even near crisis and you only see them once a week for 45 minutes, it may not be enough. Most therapists now or many therapists at least when they do marriage counseling or other important sessions are going to double sessions.

Now if you charge 150, you may do a double session for only 250. In other words, you may give a discount. Here's what I think you should do. This isn't a sales job you're just asking the patient what they prefer. When you give them their report on the second day you say, now we can handle this two ways. We can do one session, which is 45 minutes long. We can do one session a week. It'll take us a little longer, or we can...

Hi, this is Dave Kats, of Therapist Consultants and I have a tip for you.

You know I've noticed that good therapists all use an informed consent form. So I hope you are using an informed consent form. Now if you're not using an informed consent form you should start doing it right away and just go through everything in your practice and tell the patient how it functions so there is no surprises for them. You can find a lot of good informed consent forms on the internet and if you are a client of ours you can find it on our website. We have a very good informed consent form.

So that is the first thing you should do. If you are not doing one you should do it immediately. Most of you are already using an informed consent form and you have the patient sign it on the first visit. That’s the right idea. That’s the thing to do. But maybe you need to update your informed consent form. Does your informed consent form talk about distance coaching? Does it talk about...

Therapist Consultants Privacy Policy from Kats & Therapist Consultants on Vimeo.

Dr. David Kats: Hi, this is David Kats and Dr. Michael Perusich of Therapist Consultants and we have a tip for you. Everybody has a patient sign the HIPAA acknowledgment of privacy policies page when they come in, the one page form. That form says, "I have a privacy policy in place and I've offered it to the patient." You better have a privacy policy in place you better offer to the patient. Now, those policies are a lot of times about five or six pages long and they should be kept in the office and offered to the patient. Where do keep yours?

Dr. Michael Perusich: We usually keep ours right at the front desk. It's laminated, it's ready to go if any patient ever says I'd like to see it.

David: Yes. Some people put it in a notebook in the reception area. Some people have it posted on the wall. Some people offer everybody a separate copy. I wouldn't give everybody a separate copy. They don't...