North Cascades Psychology, PLLC Bellingham, WA

Background

Dr. Steven Jozwiak has 22 years experience providing comprehensive psychological assessments in both educational and clinical settings, as well as individual counseling and group therapy interventions with children and adults. Therapeutic modalities include Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy [CBT] and psychodynamic psychotherapy. He is well versed in child psychological and neuropsychological functioning, behavioral dynamics, and cognitive and behavioral interventions.

Our Mission

To provide quality, highly informative psychological/neuropsychological assessments, as well as therapeutic support to empower our clients, promote positive personal growth, and to help you achieve your goal of better mental health.

SERVICES

We provide comprehensive psychological assessments and neuro-psychological testing services, including court-ordered and custody assessments. We also provide individual counseling and psychotherapy for children and adults. Teletherapy services are available for individuals who require remote or online support, and are covered by most insurance.

Counseling                        Psychological ServiceS

Insurance and Fees

Please refer to the information below to help you to determine how your insurance company may cover the services I provide.

I currently bill insurance for psychological assessments and psychotherapy. Although I am not an in-network provider for any insurance company, some clients may be able to have me approved as a preferred provider (for purposes of reimbursement at in-network rates) due to the lack of availability of clinical psychologists with my expertise and availability. Check with your plan to see if this may apply in your case. Note that I provide all testing and related services myself, and do not delegate to trainees, technicians or psychometrists, which is not typical of providers on most insurance panels.

Bills and claims will list specific referral diagnostic codes that will often consist of multiple medical or behavioral health codes that could be reasonably considered based on your referral concerns. If you have been referred by a physician, they sometimes provide these to me. I also determine initial codes based on the referral concerns that you share with me.

The bills and claims will also list procedure codes for the services that I provided. They do NOT include facility fees that are typically charged by hospital-based providers and that can double the amount of billed charges – because of this, you may not end up paying me significantly more than you would be paying in copays to an “in-network provider.”

In some cases – typically for medical diagnoses or complex cases involving consideration of multiple diagnoses – insurance will reimburse for neuropsychological testing codes. When referral diagnoses are primarily psychological or behavioral, however, they will typically reimburse only psychological testing codes – while this does not affect the nature of the services I provide, the different sets of codes typically mean different reimbursement/coverage rates. You should ask your insurance provider about your specific coverage and whether pre-authorization is needed.

Insurance companies will not typically reimburse (or approve testing by an in-network provider) for educational testing and diagnoses that are considered educational in nature, such as learning disabilities, dyslexia, and dysgraphia. Insurance companies typically will not cover services that include school observations, school meetings, additional consultations, or fees for missed appointments.

Note that insurance companies may ask me to complete pre-authorization forms and speak with reviewers or case managers. For time spent that exceeds 15 minutes, you will be billed at my hourly rate for this time, which usually is not eligible for reimbursement. Sometimes companies want me to list each test that I may use; in these cases, they will often refuse to cover any time spent administering or interpreting educational testing, even though this may be the primary means of documenting the functional impact of a medical issue.

These rules are complex, and so varied across providers and plans, that it is not possible for me to accurately advise you on what to expect – please consider the information above, consult with your insurance provider based on the information I have provided above, and document all conversations.