Policies
Note: below are some of my clinic policies which may be relevant to those looking for care. This is not a complete list and may become out of date. An updated and official set of policies will be given to all new patients prior to treatment agreement.
Respiratory Illness Policy
Please do not come to your appointment if you believe you have a communicable respiratory illness. Call me in advance to have your appointment converted to virtual with no additional charge. If you have respiratory illness symptoms during an appointment (e.g. cough, sneezing, etc), you may be asked to wear a surgical mask, which can be provided for you.
If I have a respiratory illness, I will let you know in advance of the appointment to give you the option for telemedicine. If I have or believe I have been exposed to a communicable respiratory illness, I will wear a mask.
For patient and provider safety, a HEPA air purifier will be running in the office during all visits.
Policies on Artificial Intelligence and Large Language Models, and audio/video recording
I do not use large language models in the creation of my notes, emails, or any communication with patients. You can be confident that any words (including these!) were written by me, and not by an algorithm. Your sessions with me are not recorded in any way, and your voice is not analyzed by any language models.
Whenever possible, I attempt to partner with companies who are using AI responsibly for software (e.g. medical records systems). When companies are using these, I check to make sure that your data is kept private, not used to train models or otherwise used without your consent.
I prefer that all patient communication with me is also genuine and not constructed through large language models. You are not permitted to record our sessions, digital or in-person, without my explicit consent.
Discharge from Clinic
You may be administratively discharged from the clinic for nonadherence, nonpayment, abuse, violence, or failure to adhere to listed practice policies. You may also be discharged if there is no contact with you for more than 1 year. If you are discharged from the clinic, you will be provided with a list of alternative providers in the area as well as 30 days of medications. A certified letter may be sent to your address on file informing you of the change.
Office Hours
Current Office hours are:
Monday: 10-8
Tuesday: 10-8
Wednesday:10-8
Thursday: 10-4
I will be available for contact during these times if not with patients, and you can expect calls back to be within these hours as well.
After hours/ “On-call”/Vacation
I am not a 24/7 provider. You are welcome to contact me via the patient portal or by phone, and I will do my best to respond to you within 48 hours. If you have an emergency, please do not call me and instead seek emergent care.
If I am on vacation, ill, or otherwise out of office, I will attempt to check and respond to messages once per day. I will do my best to inform patients of any absences of a week or more from the clinic.
Fees
My current fees are:
Intake Session (45-60 minutes): 250 dollars
Psychotherapy with or without medication management (50 minutes): 250 dollars
Brief medication management without psychotherapy (20 minutes): 150 dollars
Forms, phone calls, etc. will be billed at an hourly rate of 200 dollars per hour for services exceeding 15 minutes.
If fees increase, you will be informed of the increase at least 3 months prior.
I am an out-of-network provider for all insurances at this time. If your insurance has “out-of-network” benefits, I may be able to provide you with a “superbill” which details your treatment, which you can submit to your insurance company for potential reimbursement.
You are entitled to a good faith estimate of the cost of services prior to the service, which is given above. You can read more at: https://www.cms.gov/nosurprises
Missed Appointments
Missed appointments or cancellations with less than 24 hours notice are subject to a fee of $100.00.
Communications Policies
Secure Messaging through EMR
I contract with an EMR company which has a secure messaging platform. You are welcome to message me through this platform at any time, with the assurance that it is HIPAA-secure.
Phone Calls
I am generally available by phone during business hours, and may be able to answer immediately if you call. If I am not able, please leave a message. Do not call me or leave a message in an emergency; instead, seek emergent treatment or call 911.
SMS Texting policy, Terms of Service
I use a service called sprucehealth to provide HIPAA-compliant phone and fax services. However, SMS (aka text) messaging cannot be end-to-end encrypted and is not secure. Please do not send me HIPAA-protected information (such as medical details) via these methods. I might use SMS text messaging, from time to time, for certain types of communication with you, including potentially for administrative issues, such as billing, or for health-related issues, such as care reminders.
Email
Email can be end-to-end encrypted, but that doesn’t make it necessarily secure. Please do not send HIPAA protected information to me via email; instead, please use the secure Patient Portal through Sessionshealth.
Social Media
I do not maintain any social media accounts for this business; any of my accounts on social media with the name John Minner are my private, personal accounts. As such, I will not communicate with any current or former clients on social networking sites. Please do not contact me on these sites.
Coordination of Care Policy
In order to provide you with safe medical care, I may need to be able to correspond with your therapist (if you have another therapist), your primary care provider, and any other providers deemed necessary for giving informed medical treatment. In order to participate in care, you must disclose your treatment with other providers and consent to communication between John Minner, MD and your outside providers. If you do not give this consent, or withdraw it later while you are in treatment, psychiatric services may be terminated.