Documentation Consultations: Policies, Forms and HIPAA

We're back with our consultation series where I'm recording consultations I conducted with real and practicing therapists across the country. This time I'm talking with Sandy Demopoulos, a licensed clinical social worker in New York. 

We talk about a lot of things in this interview (which is why it goes a bit longer), but go in depth regarding the following:

• How the HIPAA Notice of Privacy Practices applies to mental health clinicians

• How to determine what level of detail to include in your policies/forms

• What to review with clients who may be court-ordered or working with other agencies

• Dealing with payment issues, credit card maintenance and collections

• What to consider with social media policies

I also do something in this interview I haven't done before... I review my own Services Agreement! It's the one that is included in my Therapist's Perfect Paperwork Packet and we go through the various sections that are included. 

Please excuse the phone ringing a couple times in this video... I promise, all the info you'll receive is worth ignoring it for a few seconds!

Resources we discussed in this video:

To check out the Model Notice of Privacy Practices available for free at hhs.gov, click here. Remember to scroll down a bit and select one of the options under the section titled "NPP Provider Files."

To get CE credits for watching the webinar Roy Huggins and I did on the informed consent process, click here. 

To check out IvyPay, a service that safely collects and maintains credit card information for clients (particularly if you don't use an EHR that provides this service), click here. 

If you've decided you don't want to deal with creating your own forms at all, then click here to check out my done for you paperwork packet. 

If you want to check out the more extensive (and free) social media policy available from Dr. Keely Kolmes, click here. 

If your forms are pretty much set in place but you don't have a court policy, click here to get a great copy from Therapist Court Prep.

Lastly, if you want to check out Counsol, the electronic health record Sandy and I are both using, click here. Note that if you choose to sign up with Counsol as a result of clicking my link, I will receive a discount on my service.

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