Fees, Rebates & Cancellation Policy at Lakeside Rooms

Practitioners at Lakeside Rooms operate independently and set their own fees. Current practitioner consultation fee ranges at Lakeside Rooms are as follows:

Psychology:

Fees range from $180.00 to $250.00 for a 50-60 minute treatment session.  Clients referred under Medicare’s Better Access initiative can be eligible for a Medicare Rebate for up to 10 sessions in a calendar year.

Psychiatry:

Initial Consultation: (60 minutes) $350.00.

Subsequent consultations: (60 minutes) $225.00, (30 minutes) $170.00.  Patients with a valid GP referral can be eligible for a Medicare Rebate.

Clients are required to pay the full fee upfront on the day of consultation. Clients can then either claim the Medicare rebate in rooms through Medicare Easyclaim, or can claim themselves directly from Medicare.

Lakeside Rooms practitioners fees for services are well within those recommended by the Australian Psychological Society (APS) National Schedule of Suggested Fees.

Additional tasks that occur outside of your consultation session, such as form completion, writing letters or reports, reading documentation, and reading and responding to emails from you or on your behalf, may incur a cost and be charged at a pro-rata rate. These charges are not rebatable from Medicare. However, completing government forms by a psychiatrist during a consultation is rebatable by Medicare.

Brief Correspondence:

- Brief letter
- Summary report (following 1-hour appointment)
- Copy of medical records
- Completion of forms                                    

Off-Site Visits:

Each hour's usual session cost plus travel (per hour, 1-hour minimum).                    

Case Management incl. Telephone & Emails (Reading & Writing):

By practitioner on behalf of the client (for existing clients only) charged in 15-minute increments.

Medicare Rebates Psychology
To receive a Medicare rebate for psychology serivces, you must have an eligible Mental Health Care Plan (MHCP), a valid referral, and pay the full cost of the appointment. You can get a Mental Health Care Plan by speaking with your General Practitioner. Your doctor can also make a claim on your behalf. 

Psychology: For clinical psychologists, clients will receive a $141.85 Medicare rebate for a 50–60-minute session. Clients seeing an approved registered psychologist will receive a $96.65 Medicare rebate for a 50–60-minute session.

Psychiatry: With an eligible referral from your GP, and as long as your referral is current, you will receive a rebate back from Medicare for services provided.

Private Health Insurance: Your Private Health Insurance may cover some psychological services. Please contact your health insurer for further information. You cannot claim a Medicare and private health rebate on the same service.

WorkCover: With prior approval from WorkCover the cost of your consultations will be covered; however, Late Cancellation Fees will be invoiced to the client as WorkCover does not cover these fees.

You may cancel (or reschedule) your appointment at any time. However, we have the following cancellation and non-attendance policy:
- If you do not attend or provide less than 24 hours’ notice of cancellation – 100% of the appointment fee applies.
- If you provide less than 48 hours notice of cancellation – 50% of the appointment fee applies.

Please note:
- The above costs are for therapy sessions only.
- Non-attendance/late cancellation fees for assessments will be the costs of the clinician’s time per hour, for the time scheduled.
- Late cancellation or non-attendance fees are not rebatable from Medicare or Health Funds.
- If you fail to cancel or attend our appointments, future appointments may also be cancelled.

The decision to apply or waive the late cancellation fee is made by your treating practitioner. This decision is not made by the administrative staff, and you are welcome to discuss the cancellation fee with your practitioner.

Why do we have Late Cancellation Fees?
To help ensure that we can continue to provide our service and support to as many people as possible, it is important we utilise all appointment availabilities in practitioner schedules. As such, we need you to contact us if you are not able to attend an appointment.

We send a reminder text 72 hours before your appointment, which you will need to respond to.