One of my favorite bloggers is
Julie Hanks, MSW, LCSW, BCD. Her blog is Private Practice Toolbox. Earlier this month, I was reading her great little post titled Talking to Clients about Raising Your Fee. That’s where I picked up my latest tip on raising fees.
Julie recommends raising your fees in waves (that I’m calling “Julie waves”). By raising your fees in Julie waves, you raise the fees for your new clients while giving your current clients six months notice before increasing their fees! (You can read the rest of Julie’s post to see her reasoning for suggesting this.) I love that!
I have historically raised my fees for new clients but have chosen to keep my old fee scale for current and former clients. Julie waves allow me to tip my hat to the clients that I’ve been working with while also taking better care of my business’ needs!
This is a great idea! I have been mulling over ways to change my fees, but did not put anything into action because most of my clients are EAP and insurance users. I have very few clients that are self pay (if any at all right now).
Hey, Carla. I want to suggest that you should set your fees according to what you think is appropriate . . . and not based on how your clients choose to pay. And, never set your fees based on how insurance / managed care will reimburse you / the client for your services. You’ll find lots of blog posts here related to your fees and money. Just click on the “Money Matters” category in the left hand sidebar to find them!
Thanks Tamara! I will check them out
Is there ever a time to lower your fees? not temporarily or sliding scale, but how do you know if your fee is reasonable?
Ohhh, Jill! You ask a great question! In fact, if you don’t mind, I’ll turn this in to a quick blog post to make sure that everyone gets to see it . . . . Check back on Private Practice from the Inside Out tomorrow and I’ll get the answer posted:).
Tamara, I’m so humble that YOU learned something about private practice from ME! Thanks so much for sharing my fee raising tips, and thanks so much for providing fantastic resources here on your site.
Julie Hanks! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! I’m not too proud to beg, borrow, steal and even tweak great ideas from anyone! (And, I’m betting that you do the same:) Thank YOU for your very kind words and turning me and my readers on to Julie-waves! It’s such a thoughtful (as in thought-filled) way to handle this situation.
I’m looking forward to having your guest post here soon!
While I know that this post is about raising fees, it reminds me of one of the parts of setting up my private practice and I’m dreading the most: setting fees. Eventually I’m going to have to face that one.
I have heard from supervisors that it is not advisable to charge clients two different rates. Is it possible that states have guidelines about whether we can charge people different rates depending on whether they are new or not? If the intention is always to make the rates uniform after a period of time, it may not matter, but does anybody else have any thoughts on this?
Lauren, what you must do is be fair and equitable in your practices including setting fees. That means you cannot charge different fees randomly and you certainly cannot charge one fee for your cash-paying clients and another for your clients paying through managed care. However, I believe that there is nothing illegal or unethical if your office policy is to Julie-wave fee increases . . . .
When I made that comment, I was trying to phrase it such that I wasn’t really suggesting that anything illegal or unethical was happening, while still expressing my question. I think what I was thinking of is exactly what you mentioned, that you cannot charge one fee for managed care and another for cash paying clients. Sorry for the confusion. I’m really trying to keep all of this straight. I need to put something in my informed consent about the possibility of a “waves” in increases. How in the world do I word that? I’m working on my informed consent now, so this is very timely…. I don’t think I mentioned that I think the “waves” is very good, which is why I commented on it in the first place.
Lauren, I wasn’t sure which place you were coming from so I just decided to write it for the masses to cover my bases. (It’s a good example of what can be lost without the face to face / voice to voice exchange, isn’t it?)
As for your informed consent, You could do one of several things . . . . I haven’t raised my fees in over ten years. I’m not suggesting that others who raise their fees more often is doing it “wrong” – remember there are lots of right ways to “do” a private practice. That’s just what my pattern has been. Because I raise my fees so infrequently, I prefer to simply have a statement that notes that if / when my policies change, they will be notified in writing and asked to give written acknowledgement of those changes. Then, here’s What to Do When It’s Time to Raise Your Fees.
And, if you find this is helpful, I hope you’ll use the social media buttons at the bottom of each post to let other folks know about it, too!
Your repost of this in your Facebook group is so timely for me! I’m needing to raise my fees to differentiate me from the therapists I contract with, and to acknowledge me training and experience. I’ve been mulling over what to do with current clients, so thank you for this! I wonder if anyone has experience in doing a premium fee for evening hours? Yay or nay?
Oh, Kat! So glad to know it’s helpful even to those who are more seasoned therapists like yourself!
I have had evening hours priced at a premium for over a decade now.
And, I encourage every therapist to consider when they prefer to work and when they are working at their optimum . . . and price accordingly.
I have never had one counseling client or potential client flinch when I have stated my daytime rate and my (higher) evening / weekend rate.
It’s such a simple way to shift clients into the time slots that I prefer to work.
Just remember that if you are contracting with managed care, you may need to update them if you are changing your fees!