Alternatives Counseling Inc

As a mental health agency, by law we are unable to address anything specific related to a client, as a specific response would violate their right to confidentiality, even when we dispute their claim. Thus, we must explain the relevant programmatic issues.  In addition to our work with...

children, teens, adults, and families we offer two services which are typically ordered by courts or probation in conjunction with criminal offenses.  These are the Sex Offender Treatment Program (SOTP) and Partner Abuse Intervention Program (PAI P). The two programs operate differently and have different requirements and costs. There are a minimum of two individual intake sessions for the SOTP ranging from $78-$95 per hour in cost. Clients purchase a clinical workbook for use in the program as well. The monthly fee for SOTP groups is $135 per month, not per group, charged at the beginning of each month.  The intake for the PAIP program is $50 and in that program groups are charged at $25 per group rather than per month; groups meet weekly in both programs.   Clients are given a receipt for any payments in all programs;  the duplicates of the two-part receipt forms are retained for at least seven years.  If ever a client feels their bill is inaccurate, they are asked to bring in receipts, canceled checks, or any other evidence of payments which are then reconciled by the office manager, crediting anything missed if there had been an error.  Eventually if clients are not making payments we set a credit deadline and may suspend services if the outstanding account is not addressed. When this occurs for a court ordered client, any further consequence is solely at the discretion of the court. All records are retained by our agency for a minimum of seven years by policy, although a flood in our Glen Carbon office destroyed a small percentage of our older paper records.  We sometimes have a delay in accessing closed records as we changed electronic health record systems last year.  Some prior electronic records are in storage with another company and it requires several days’ notice to access those records.