Report Requests – Terms & Conditions

Reports

A report from your psychologist or allied health professional may be requested or required for a variety of reasons. Reports may be requested by yourself, by the courts, by your lawyer, by a third party, insurance company or your medical practitioner.

There are also different types of reports:

• Medico-legal and forensic reports,
• Healthcare related reports,
• Specific educational and diagnostic reports such as for intellectual impairment, autism or attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder,
• Reports requested by a third party such as Workcover or the NDIS,

It is also important to note that a therapeutic process and an assessment process (solely for the purposes of an assessment and report) are very different and the types of reports issued based on these interventions are also very different. Please feel free to discuss this with your psychologist if you are unsure.

Furthermore, with certain types of reports, more specifically required by a court of law, or medico-legal reports, confidentiality cannot be ensured. Once again, please discuss this with your psychologist if you are unsure.

The Process:

Report requests may only be offered by your mental health professional if they deem themselves suited to writing the report requested. The process for paying and collecting a report are as follows:

1. Your Clinician must first confirm with you in session or prior to session that your request is in their range of expertise,
2. If the report required to be written is not within the expertise of your psychologist or allied health professional, they would refer you to the appropriate professional to assist you with your request,
3. If your sole purpose for attending is to gain a report, then you may send a confidential email to Psych@visionpsychology.com and request advice on who performs these reports. There are dozens of distinct types of reports and not all clinicians have the knowledge or skills to author or assess what is needed.
4. Many reports will require a series of appointments, plus the time to write a report, which will depend on the complexity of the matters under consideration and being reported. Reports are costed at an hourly rate that your Clinician charges x the number of hours required to write the Report. Reports may be a few pages or more than a dozen, depending on the detail needed. This applies with the exception of referrals from Work Cover, NDIS, insurance companies or other third-party providers that usually have published fees for reports.
5. All reports must be confirmed as within the expertise of your Clinician, quoted and paid for as outlined below:

5.1. Upon receipt of a request for a report, your psychologist or allied health professional will quote you and our admin staff will send out your quote,

5.2. Once you have accepted the quote, a 50% deposit is required to confirm the booking of your first session, although you are welcome to pay 100% should you choose.

5.3. The remaining 50% is to be paid prior to commencement of the final session.

5.4. For the purposes of assessments solely meant for the purpose of a report (court required, medico-legal, cosmetic readiness assessments, psychological firearms evaluations, psychological evaluations for home affairs etc), a 50% deposit is required upon booking, although you may choose to pay 100% upfront.

5.5. No reports are issued without full and final payment,

5.6. Only once full payment is received will your Clinician start compiling your report,

5.7. Reports are usually issued 10 – 14 days after receipt of full and final payment, unless otherwise stated by your psychologist, due to the need to access other third-party documents that are not available at the time of the assessment appointments.

Third party providers: Full payment from third party providers is kindly requested upon receipt of our Tax Invoice and before any feedback is given or test results and any associated reports are released.

Legal reports will always require your lawyer to direct the Clinician on what they need. In the case of Family Court proceedings, a letter from the lawyers of both parties may be required to ensure clarity around what is required from the Clinician. Clients often misunderstand that a letter/report help. It may help or may hinder depending on the situation.

Health reports or diagnostic reports often require follow-up by a doctor, psychiatrist or paediatrician.  Your GP or Specialist should specify in their referral the type of report they seek.

Report Terms & Conditions:

The following are the terms and conditions of reports requested by you or another party:

1. That you have checked that the Clinician you have selected has agreed to supply the report.
2. That you are willing and will seek a quote from the Clinician in writing for report. This will be emailed from our reception team. This quote may include the sessions needed prior to writing or the report as a stand-alone item on its own.
3. Where you are required to attend a designated number of sessions with your Clinician before the report can be written, you must attend those sessions.
4. You acknowledge and agree to the payment terms outlined above in paragraphs 5 of the process for paying and collecting a report.
5. As previously stated, we do not start authoring reports until after full payment has been received.
6. You acknowledge the contents of the report may or may not help your situation and that you gave all relevant documents to the Clinician before you requested the report.
7. You acknowledge that your Clinician has the right to refuse a report request if the complexities of the request are such that it becomes apparent the Clinician is no longer able to expertly manage its provision.
8. Your Clinician reserves the right, at their discretion, subsequent to the initial intake or assessment session(s) to not continue the process through to Report preparation.  Where your Clinician exercises this discretion, the reasons for doing so will be discussed with you.
9. Reports will be collectable from our reception between 10 and 14 days (about 2 weeks) after payment (unless the report request requires 3^rd party involvement).
10. Reports can be emailed, with your permission, to yourself or relevant parties,
11. You acknowledge that if the report request involves 3^rd party involvement, that the report may not be provided for 8 weeks, as often other parties take 4-6 weeks to respond to a request, and once your Clinician has received information from the 3^rd party, they require up to 2 weeks to write the report.
12. If the report is needed for yourself or a family member, you will be required to attend and pay for a feedback session as part of the process. Reports are not released to clients unless the opportunity has been given to go over the report and associated findings in a feedback session.
13. If you wish to access NDIS funding as a result of the diagnosis that eventuates from this assessment, you agree that you will need to make an appointment with a paediatrician or psychiatrist to have them confirm it and that you will be responsible for any professional fees incurred in doing so.