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DOT Center- Downtown Oakland Therapy and Couples Counseling

Clinician Tutorials

Supporting each other to succeed

Getting Started

Getting started with Simple Practice at DOT Center, the intake process, and initial clinician responsibilities.

 

First Contact and Session

What to be aware of during your first phone call and in-person session with client.

 

Initial Client Payment and Forms

How to check if your client has paid their balance and submitted their forms.

 

SUperbills, new Credit Cards, and Default Rates

Adding superbills, new credit cards, and updating default rates.

Getting Started

What our clients’ experience when they first reach out and what your responsibilities are in the process.

  • Client calls or emails DOT Center

  • Our intake coordinator (Mel) emails client to fill out online intake form. Mel & Liz will review the form and determine who will do phone intake - either Mel, Liz, or the requested therapist. 

  • Intake person will email to schedule an intake call in order to gather further clinical information, discuss price and general scheduling needs - enter data into google doc and/or email to share with Liz.

  • If Mel or Liz does the intake call:

    • The therapist will be alerted via email with attached intake form.

    • Respond back within 24 hours to Mel and/or Liz about your availibility (or not) to work w/ client.

    • If yes, contact via client’s preferred communication method (phone or email or text)- specifically to introduce yourself,  confirm scheduling, and answer any questions they may have for you. 

  • Be in touch with Liz if you run into any clinical concerns, technical issues, or frame issues.


Clinician Responsibilities

  1. Contacting client within 24 hrs.

  2. Tracking contact attempts and conversations via emails with Mel/Liz.

  3. Updating the Availability Schedule as clients start and end in SP and/or tracking form through Mel.

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First Contact

First Phone Call/Email

If clinician does intake or follow-up phone consultation with client please prioritize:

  • Logistics First

    • Schedule- make sure your schedule aligns with client needs before opening up conversation about their mental health needs. 

    • Confirm fee and location.

  • Clinical Relationship

    • Mention that you have read their notes from the contact or intake form so they don’t feel like they have to tell their whole story over again. 

      • “I saw in your intake that you are struggling with….. Is there anything more you wanted to let me know before we meet in person?” 

    • Can invite them to ask questions about therapy in general.

    • Sell yourself by empathizing, providing insight, reassurance. eg. saying things like “This is where therapy is very helpful” Provide hope to clients that you/therapy can help. Other examples include:

      • Ex- “in my experience...”

      • Normalize their experience and struggle

      • Strengths-based- can point out the positive actions/thought processes that they are already having

  • Admin Steps

    • Email or update Liz at 1:1 about all new intakes.

    • Make sure to email client portal invite that includes FORMS and Credit Card PAYMENT info for client to submit before the session.

    • Update client with client portal invite next steps: “I will be contacting you to invite you to the client portal to complete payment before session.”

    • Tell client about ongoing payment structure- their credit card will be stored in the system and you will be the one to schedule each session directly with them and charge them through SP after each session. 

    • After client contact, enter notes in SP and send out client portal with direct follow-up email to check all gmail folders.

    • If a client doesn’t end up being a fit for you or any other DOT Clinician mark “Inactive.”

Before your first session:

To check if your client has paid:

  • Click on their name> Look under Billing Review in upper right hand corner> if they have a red balance that means they have not paid> contact client before session and remind them they need to complete this in order to meet with you.

 

To check if they’ve submitted their forms:

  • In the same column on the lower right-hand-side you’ll see what has been “Shared with Client” and completed forms will be highlighted in blue> contact client before session and remind them they need to complete all forms in order to meet with you.

First session Reminders

  • Client will have pre-paid for the first session.

  • Have a great first session with the client! Use your own style and strengths to build the alliance and safe container. Here’s an example script to orient client if needed:

    • “As this is our first session, I like to invite you to lead because it is an opportunity to tell me what kinds of things you want to work on. I’ll ask questions as we go however and hope to add my feedback in as well... I will also aim to leave 5 min at the end to talk about how this went for you.”

  • If you have any issues having the client pay via Client Portal, please email Liz after the session and check-in with Liz before the next session to make sure payment and forms have been completed.

Client Payment & Forms

Charging After Sessions

  • Click on appointment date in client’s account> It will appear in the Calendar

  • Make sure rate is correct before creating invoice> update if not (change default rate for future)

  • Create invoice

  • Add payment> ALWAYS charge to STRIPE

    • Any non-stripe charges need to be approved by Liz Tong EVERY time they are inputted. Otherwise, this will affect your paycheck.

 
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Superbills, Credit Cards, and Default Rates

Where to Find the Client Billing Area

Here’s how to add monthly superbills to be automatically sent to your client monthly, add new credit cards, and updating default rates.

  • In client’s account, underneath their name, click" “EDIT”

  • Then click the second tab “Billing and Insurance”

  • You can then see the options to:

    • Automatically generate superbills monthly

    • Email superbills automatically

    • Update credit cards manually

    • Change default rates to ensure you are charging and getting paid for your time

 

Updating Superbills

Simple Practice doesn't allow you to make more than 1 superbill for each session. If you need to make updates to an existing superbill, you'd delete the old superbill and then the dates will show to create a new one. Existing superbills can be downloaded or deleted from the Billing Documents section- the last option in the right-hand column, as seen here.

TELEHEALTH Suffix Codes

As of 2022, there is a new Telehealth suffix code 95.

Current and future sessions: If you are seeing your client virtually, and they are submitting superbills to their insurance, you will need to add the suffix code 95 to their Service Code. You can add modifiers for current and future sessions through the Calendar.

Past sessions: If a client needs a new superbill with modifiers because the modifier was not added previously, you’d need to delete the old superbills, and re-create the previous ones. You may have to go back to edit each past appointment to add the 95 code, and then re-create a new superbill. You can update past session codes through the Billing Section of a client’s account.

Thanks for being a part of our team!