Posted by Dinah on January 23, 2012, at 10:51:54
He knows and wants me to tell why. I'm not willing to tell why because it isn't reasonable of me to be upset. He's done nothing wrong.
I brought up the fact that I think I need to reduce sessions because of the decrease in flexible spending account contributions in 2013. After discussing it for a while, he said that finances are a part of the therapy arrangement, and that everyone needs to make decisions based on that. He said he's had clients decline to come to him because the co-pay was higher on out of network providers. He said he thought we'd discussed going down to three times every two weeks, or maybe once a week.
I did tell him the anecdote about the people unwilling to pay the higher copay bothered me, since I've paid enough over the years to finance a small house. And he said he didn't mean to say the two cases were comparable. Just that finances were often a problem in therapy.
I don't know altogether why I'm upset. I know that other times when it's come up, he's mentioned reducing his fee so that it's still more than what he gets from insurance but less than I'm paying now. I always told him that I wouldn't do that, ask him to take less. But maybe I'm upset that he didn't offer that this time? Or maybe it's just the entire talk of cash is bothering me? Maybe it's because I think he should be willing to see me for the same cost he sees most of his clients, even if I reject his offer?
It's likely he'll bring it up last time because he often does when I leave upset. I don't want to talk about it with him. I'd rather handle it alone. He's not doing anything wrong, but it's hurtful to me. I hope he doesn't press.
poster:Dinah
thread:1008146
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20111220/msgs/1008146.html