Dr. Julie Branca currently offers the following services for clients:

Professional fees:
My hourly appointment fee is $100 for individual therapy and $120 for couples therapy. (Sliding scale rates are available.)

Although some forms of insurance are accepted, you should please note below some of the inherent difficulties and challenges in the way in which managed care currently distributes and oversees mental health services.

Note:
For a variety of reasons -- some philosophical, some practical -- I have chosen not to be on the panel of most "Managed Health Care Plans" such as HMOs and PPOs.

Thus, if you have one of these particular types of plans and you wish to see me for psychotherapy, it is very important for you to find out the availability of coverage for an "out of network provider psychologist." If we are able to work together under one of these plans, your insurance company may require advance authorization before they will provide reimbursement for mental health services.

You should also be aware that most insurance agreements require you to authorize me to submit clinical diagnoses, treatment plans, and occasionally a copy of the entire record as justification for mental health services. These reports then become part of the insurance company's files. While the insurance companies claim to maintain the confidentiality of these files, I will have no control over what they do with the information once it is in their hands. Oftentimes the information becomes part of an electronic databank. In some cases the information may be shared as part of a national medical information database.

In my experience, while the short-term treatment approach that these plans mandate can be effective in resolving specific behaviorally oriented problems, many clients feel the need for more services beyond the standard coverage rendered by these types of insurance.

It is important to remember that you always have the right to pay for my service yourself and avoid the complexities described above.