Costs

Outpatient consultations

Recover and Thrive will charge a flat fee of $450 per hour*. This hourly rate applies to both the time spent with Dr. Henderson and also to the time he requires to prepare for the consultation and complete any necessary tasks and paperwork after the consultation. (Please see the table below for examples)

*This is not relevant to services that are billed to external providers ie work cover and DVA.

Medicare will reimburse a proportion of the fee. The amount will differ depending on the planned length of the consultation and its purpose. (Please see the table below for examples). This means you will have to pay the whole fee upfront however you will immediately receive the Medicare reimbursement back.

Examples of different length appointments, their purpose and their costs:

Medicare Safety Nets

Medicare provides two ‘safety nets’ beyond which they will pay larger portions of the fee:

1. Original Medicare Safety Net – once you have paid $560.40 in gap fees in a financial year they will increase their reimbursement by 20%.

2. Extended Medicare safety net – once you have paid $2544.30 in gap fees in a financial year they will increase their reimbursement to 80% of your total gap fee. If you have a pension concessional card, health care card or are eligible for family tax benefit part A the threshold at which this kicks in is $811.80.

You must register to be eligible for these thresholds. To do so, and to see more detailed information please go to Medicare Safety Nets – Services Australia

Report Writing Costs

Any reports that need to be completed that are not funded by the organisation that is requesting them (ie insurance company reports, NDIS application etc) will be charged dependent on the time required to complete them, based on the $450 hourly rate. On average reports will often take 20 mins, meaning you would be invoiced $150 upon completion of the report. You will be provided an estimate of the cost before you decide whether you would like the report completed.

Medication Costs

Medication costs differ, for the same medication, based on which pharmacy you buy it from, whether it’s a generic or branded version, whether it is being prescribed for a condition that the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme subsidises and whether you are a concessional card holder. In addition, there is also a PBS safety net that can reduce the cost of your medication once you have spent a certain amount in a year – for more information go to PBS Safety Net thresholds – Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme – Services Australia

For example, Aripiprazole is subsidised by the PBS for psychotic disorders. This means it will cost roughly $41.50 per month for someone with a psychotic disorder, $5.80 if they have a concessional card. However, if it is prescribed for bipolar disorder, or treatment resistant depression, which the PBS does not subsidise (despite both being evidence based uses of it that are in the Royal Australia and New Zealand College of Psychiatry treatment guidelines) it will cost roughly $60, and having a concessional card will not make it any cheaper. If you have private health insurance, and dependent on what type of cover you have, it may cover part of the costs of your medication.

We will always endeavour to provide you information about the cost of a medication before they are prescribed.

Prescription Costs

There are no costs for prescriptions provided during appointments. If a prescription needs to be renewed between appointments due to it being lost or as a result of you changing the date of the planned review appointment (as every effort will have been made to ensure you have enough prescriptions to last until the next review appointment) a 37.50 fee will require to be paid before the prescription is provided.

Psychology Costs

Although we will take a psychologically informed approach to your care we will not be providing Psychological therapy, however, will regularly recommend people see a psychologist as many mental disorders respond well to therapy. A mental health care plan, which can only be provided by your GP, will subsidise between 10 and 20 sessions with a psychologist however it does not cover the whole cost and there will still be a gap fee for each session. Some providers do vary their gap fees with ‘means tests’ so make sure you ask.

GP costs

We will never ask you to attend your GP to get a prescription or request an investigation if we can provide it ourselves, however there are some investigations that will require you to attend your GP. In addition, once your treatment is complete, we will hand over the prescribing of your medication back to your GP. We will only prescribe the psychiatric medications in the treatment plan we have created with you, all other medications will still need to be prescribed by your GP.

Inpatient Costs

Most people can be successfully treated as outpatient, however, if you do require a private hospital inpatient admission the cost will be dependent on your insurance cover. For most people with adequate private insurance there would be no cost.

Other Costs

Some of the additional specialised assessments we may suggest you complete between consultations are copyrighted and therefore the company that owns them charge a fee for each use. This cost will be passed on to you at cost price. We will always try to use free assessments wherever possible.