Frequently Asked Questions
Mental Health
We are passionate about making sure that mental health care is accessible to everyone. Since we are not in-network with insurance, we provide several services with reduce-fee options, such as groups, individual and testing. We offer several different types of groups that cost significantly less than individual therapy. We also offer individual therapy and testing with trainees under supervision which are much more affordable than working exclusively with a licensed clinician. Please contact us for more information.
You will be charged the full session fee if you do not notify us via email or phone 48 hours before your scheduled appointment. Should a last minute emergency or sickness arise, your session fee can be waived on a case-by-case basis.
We send out an email reminder before your first appointment which contains a welcome packet. You'll need to complete these forms electronically before the appointment. Any reports or recent testings that are relevant from school or other providers are also important to bring or share prior to your first appointment.
We have a process for welcoming new patients into our practice. This begins with the patient making first contact and then our practice coordinators following up to gather and give information to make sure we are the best fit. If all checks out, then we'll schedule the first intake appointment with your provider. If, during that process, something goes awry and the patient would like to speak to the assigned provider before the first appointment, we try to accommodate such requests.
Yes. All of our offices have waiting rooms.
No, but we work with many excellent psychiatrists who can meet with you to discuss medication and issue prescriptions as part of your treatment.
Some of the services our office provides such as behavioral support monitoring, telephone and email consultation, report writing, observations, behavior plans, documentation requests, traveling for appointments out of office, and other non-direct patient care services are not typically reimbursed by insurance. You should consider these services as an out-of-pocket expense that might not be reimbursed by your insurance. This will be in writing before you start treatment and your therapist will speak with you before providing these services so you are aware of charges before they occur.
The initial intake appointment: 90791 typically 60 minutes.
For treatment sessions: 90834 for 45 minutes, 90837 for 60 minutes, 90846 for family therapy without the patient, 90847 for family therapy or home observation including couples therapy where the patient is present.
For group: 90853 or 90849
Telehealth codes: 90791 (95), 90834 (95), 90837 (95), 90846 (95), 90847 (95).
When submitting your claims and our receipt for reimbursement, make sure to note to your insurance company that checks should be issued to the patient, and not to the provider. We cannot endorse, cash and reimburse patients for checks mailed to our office made payable to our company. We will mail them back to the insurance company.
Please mail payment to: Manhattan Psychology Group, PC 107 West 82nd St, Lower Level Suite 101, New York, NY 10024.
Please make all checks payable to "Manhattan Psychology Group, PC".
Yes, you can pay by credit or debit card with no additional credit card fee. Please contact a member of our team at info@manhattanpsychologygroup.com to provide consent to charge your credit card within 24 hours of a service. Some families choose to have us charge their credit card for them automatically for each session. If this is your preference, please let us know.
Payment is due at the time of your session. When services occur at school or when the patient is not present, you will receive an email description of your charges within a week. We ask for payment shortly after we send out this email.
Our office may charge your credit card on file if we do not receive payment within 5 business days. Non-payment may result in legal action and incur additional fees.
We email receipts at the beginning of each month for all sessions paid for in the previous month (for example a receipt for any sessions in April will go out the first week in May). The receipt for the month is issued when all sessions from that month have been paid.
Testing
We will discuss insurance first and foremost in the initial stages of our Testing consultations. We will provide the appropriate codes based on what test is best suited for the patient to allow parents and individuals to follow-up with their insurance companies.
First, we will conduct an Intake. generally take one hour, completed virtually with parents (or the individual if they are over 18). The intake helps us gather information related to presenting problems and pertinent developmental, medical, and social history for the patient.
Next, we will complete Testing. Depending on testing needs, this will take place over 1-3 in-person sessions in our office location on the Upper West Side. Some testing can be done virtually, please let us know if you’d prefer virtual testing. Rating scales will also be sent to parents and school, with a signed release.
Finally, we will provide Feedback, which typically takes one hour, completed virtually with parents (or the individual if they are over 18). After the feedback session, we will provide a comprehensive report to parents/individual outlining how the patient completed each aspect of testing, present diagnoses, review recommendations, and answer parent/individual questions.
The intake and feedback portion of testing is via TeleHealth. The testing portion itself is generally in-person.
The testing results are presented over one hour with parents (or the individual if over 18). After feedback, a comprehensive report is provided to parents/patients outlining how the patient completed each aspect of testing, the diagnoses, the recommendations, and time to answer parent/individual questions.
Out-of-Network ABA
1. The first step in the process is an in-office parent-child intake with our senior clinical director, Ariel Kornblum. This is a 90 min intake, inclusive of record review, parent intake, child intake and formal feedback on schedule.
2. The MPG team will work on scheduling. Once a provider or providers are available they will be linked with the family. The family will also be linked with the provider's clinical supervisor.
3. The MPG team will submit a request for an initial assessment. This assessment is not diagnostic in nature, it is a skills assessment that identifies areas of strengths, deficits and assists in goal setting. The therapist will complete the initial assessment once it is authorized.
4. MPG submits an ongoing authorization for services (this happens every 6 months). This information will be shared with families.
5. The therapist(s) will share the goals and program book with the parent.
6. Therapy begins!
All ABA services (Regardless of in or out of network) require a pre-authorization as well as an ongoing 6 month authorization. The MPG team will handle both of these, and all families with paid balances will receive a monthly receipt with all the appropriate codes required for reimbursement.
Insurance companies will only reimburse services for individuals with diagnoses of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). All authorizations require a comprehensive diagnostic assessment (within the last two years) from a neuropsychological evaluation or developmental pediatrician report
We can typically schedule intakes in 2-3 weeks. Typically, staffing takes 6-8 weeks.
All private pay therapists are Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBA) and Licensed Behavior Analysts (LBA) in NYS. These are clinicians with advanced training and supervision in the provision of behavior analytic services.
There are 4 main codes utilized for ABA therapy. All of these codes are billed in 15 minute increments
97151 - assessment code
97155 - supervision code
97156 - parent training code
97153 - 1:1 direct therapy code
Tip:
MPG encourages all families to double check their reimbursement rates with their insurance companies prior to initiating services. Reimbursable usual and customary rates can vary greatly.
ABA services may be provided in the home, school, and community. MPG staffs BCBAs and LBAs across the 5 boroughs and Yonkers/Jersey who work with families to meet their scheduling and location availability. For home services, the BCBA will meet with the client at the family’s home and provide the recommended ABA services. For school settings, the BCBA will meet the student at school and act as a 1:1 practitioner to support the student through their school day. For services in the community, the BCBA (with an adult family member present) will take the student into local community events/activities and work on ABA programming in these settings.
For DOE funded services, MPG bills the DOE directly. For private or out of network services, the family is responsible for paying the rate for the service upon service delivery.
MPG BCBAs and LBAs initially go through a 12-training sequence upon their initial 3 month employment. The training involves competency based assessment and frequent feedback. Supervision and clinical support is provided to our entire team in an ongoing capacity, for the duration of their work with MPG.
IHO-DOE Funded ABA
For DOE funded services, MPG bills the DOE directly.
We can typically schedule intakes in 2-3 weeks. Typically, staffing takes 6-8 weeks.
All DOE therapists are Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBA) and Licensed Behavior Analysts (LBA) in NYS. These are clinicians with advanced training and supervision in the provision of behavior analytic services.
ABA services may be provided in the home, school, and community. MPG staffs BCBAs and LBAs across the 5 boroughs and Yonkers/Jersey who work with families to meet their scheduling and location availability. For home services, the BCBA will meet with the client at the family’s home and provide the recommended ABA services. For school settings, the BCBA will meet the student at school and act as a 1:1 practitioner to support the student through their school day. For services in the community, the BCBA (with an adult family member present) will take the student into local community events/activities and work on ABA programming in these settings.
MPG BCBAs and LBAs initially go through a 12-training sequence upon their initial 3 month employment. The training involves competency based assessment and frequent feedback. Supervision and clinical support is provided to our entire team in an ongoing capacity, for the duration of their work with MPG.
That’s okay! While we strive to create meaningful connections at the beginning of therapy, sometimes the needs of a particular student do not align with the strengths of a particular therapist. In the event that you’ve identified that the therapist/student relationship is not ideal, we ask that you reach out to a supervisor or clinical director for support in next steps.
For DOE funded services, MPG will deliver a monthly invoice to parents/families for their review and signature, before sending the invoice to the DOE for payment. All invoice signing is done electronically via docusign, so no printing/scanning is necessary to complete signature.
Our therapists are eager to work with the other providers on your child’s team to create the most meaningful, well rounded therapy experience possible. We collaborate actively with speech therapists, occupational therapists, physical therapists, counselors, feeding therapists, etc. We will also work directly with tutors, respite providers, or teachers. Collaborative meetings may occur on an as-needed basis and your therapy team should be alerted if you feel the need for additional collaboration is needed at any time.
Tutoring
School aged children or children receiving some form of academic instruction are all eligible for tutoring. Typically, tutoring occurs between the ages of 5-17 years old.
Tutors with MPG Tutoring are all licensed teachers.
Tutoring is not reimbursable through insurance. If interested in tutoring services through MPG Tutoring, we take orders through impartial hearings via the DOE or private pay as payment.
Typically, tutoring occurs either in the home of the student or remotely via zoom by our team of experienced telehealth providers. If there is a special circumstance where an alternative location needs to be identified, please do not hesitate to reach out to address potential options.
Tutoring sessions typically last between 1-2 hours, and may occur multiple times per week depending on the student’s individual needs.
While the total duration is variable, the average length of tutoring services is approximately one year.
