CONSULTATION FEES & POLICIES
Eat Love Live is committed to providing compassionate, individual, evidence informed and effective support for all our clients. All Eat Love Live clinicians have additional training in supporting people with eating disorders and are Credentialed Eating Disorder Clinicians (CEDC).
The Eat Love Live team are supported by clinical leaders with over 20 years’ experience in the provision of eating disorder support and are committed to ongoing training and regular supervision to ensure they are providing safe and effective support for all clients.
The initial assessment is an important part of engagement in the healing process. You can read more about what to expect here.
After an initial assessment with a clinician, they will then spend considerable further time formulating a support plan, connecting with treatment teams and completing the relevant documents and communication. This is reflected in the higher cost of initial assessments.
Click on the links below for information regarding our current fees, session structure and rebates:
PAYMENT POLICY
Fees for sessions are to be on the day of consultation.
Payment is to be made in full before a claim is made to Medicare for clients who have an Eating Disorder care plan (EDP) or Enhanced Primary Care plan (EPC) in place.
Please note, that we do not bulk bill for services and there is a gap payment.
More information regarding Medicare care plans.
Telehealth sessions
For clients attending sessions via telehealth, we request that the appointment be paid for when booking the session, prior to the session, or that permission is provided for Eat Love Live to save payment details to our secure payment system, Medipass, and the payment will be applied at the completion of the session.
If a client fails to attend the appointment or cancels within 24 hours the full cost of the appointment will be charged to the credit card on file.
Face to Face sessions
For clients attending Face to Face appointments, sessions can be paid for at the time of booking, credit card can be saved on file or payment can be made at reception before leaving the office.
For clients attending face to face on a Saturday, when reception is not present, credit cards need to be saved to file.
Adolescent clients
For clients whose carers, parents or a third party are paying the invoice it is the client's responsibility to ensure that the correct details are provided to reception for communication regarding payment. Our booking system allows multiple phone numbers to be saved for reminder texts.
CANCELLATION / RESCHEDULE POLICY
If you need to cancel or reschedule your appointment at short notice we are unable to fill this spot with someone from the waiting list.
The full fee of a booked appointment will be charged when:
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0-24 hours notice is given, or a client fails to attend the appointment
We appreciate that illness and other things happen; please communicate with your practitioner and or reception in these situations.
If you are unsure you will be well enough to attend due to illness we recommend you reschedule with more notice so the space may be offered to someone else on the waiting list.
This courtesy will in turn then be shown to you at the times you are unable to secure an appointment at an appropriate time and may be on the waiting list.
OUTSTANDING ACCOUNTS POLICY
For payments that have not been made on the day of session outlined below is the outstanding account procedure.
- Clients will be emailed and phoned regarding the outstanding payment.
- Clients are unable to attend their next appointment until payment has been made.
- Clients will be reminded to pay for 4 weeks then the matter will be referred to a debt collector firm to follow up.
We appreciate that finances are individual, sensitive and access can change. If there are any concerns regarding ability to pay the fees please contact your practitioner or reception asap so we are aware and a plan to support you can be put in place. We are open to a payment plan as needed and understand that clients may be waiting for incoming funds to make payment. With this information we are able to support you.
AGE POLICY
Please note, some practitioners have boundaries on the age of clients they will accept as new referrals. Each clinician's age requirements can be found on their profile page or our appointment booking page.
We request that for all new clients aged 15 years and younger that a Pre-assessment Questionnaire be completed to assist us in triaging the young person and family.
For all clients aged 15 or younger, we request that the initial assessment be with the parents/ carer only. Eating disorders do not just affect the person but families as a whole. This is an important part of the assessment process and will help us to get a clear history of the development of the eating disorder and aid in setting up a treatment team and clear treatment goals moving forward.
We recommend that all clients aged 16-18 years old attend the initial assessment with a parent, carer or support person.
Family based treatment is the gold standard for supporting children and adolescents with eating disorders. The Eat Love Live team are not trained in family based treatment or family therapy.
As dietitians we can be an adjunct to this important treatment process, provide a safe space for discussion around meal planning, information about eating disorders, physical and psychological risks associated with the eating disorder, normal puberty changes to the body, guidelines to adequate amounts of nutrition and help clear many of the myths about food and bodies in our community.
We appreciate that accessing paediatric and adolescent services at this time is difficult and there are long wait lists. As with all clients, we insist that all adolescents are linked in with a multidisciplinary team including a GP and a mental health clinician - be it a psychologist or psychiatrist. And we suggest that clients make the referral to CHAMS/ CHYMS and / or private family therapy and be on the waiting list for this support.
Along with the GP or paediatrician we can provide information and support while families are waiting for this important more intensive support.
SLIDING SCALE POLICY
There are a number of factors that contribute to our financial access and value, determined largely by the power systems that discriminate against race, perceived gender identity, sexuality, disability, immigration status and socioeconomic status, among many other overlapping sociocultural factors and identities. This is evident within our health systems, which consistently fail to support marginalised communities and people of diverse backgrounds. While we cannot prop up these health systems, we can hope to provide support to the people falling through the cracks. We strive to create opportunities for individuals to access inclusive healthcare and support from otherwise inaccessible services.
Eat Love Live uses a Sliding Scale as a payment model our practitioners can elect to support clients who cannot afford care otherwise. This is best suited for clients with low income, financial instability or security, extensive medical (or other service) costs and for those facing systemic barriers in accessing care or employment. By providing a lower cost service, it allows clients to be able to afford our services through achievable payments. We acknowledge that our standard fees are not accessible to a large demographic of vulnerable populations and we hope to address that by using a sliding scale approach.
Our sliding scale is intended to encourage people who would otherwise not be able to access our services, to pay according to their available resources. In doing so, we are able to sustain our business while creating opportunities for broader financial accessibility to our services.
INFORMING SLIDING SCALE COSTS
Best practice [2]
Dietitians Australia professional standards, through the Code of Conduct, outline that all Accredited Practicing Dietitians should:
- Deliver safe, effective and evidence-based services;
- Make ethical decisions;
- Engage in ongoing professional learning;
- Maintain recent practice hours;
- Provide a valued and credible source of food and nutrition information.
- When you work with an APD at Eat Love Live, you can trust them to deliver high-quality dietetic health services.
INTERSECTIONAL & INCLUSIVE PRACTICE
We acknowledge the influence and impact of social inequality and how it is embedded within our society, and how power influences people's access and ability to use services. We aim to recognise and identify the barriers to safety and access to services, and work towards providing a service that is safe, responsive, respectful, inclusive and accessible to all. By providing a Sliding Scale Policy, we hope to address some of the barriers that prevent access to services for those who need it most.
In providing inclusive services, we practice cultural safety and respect by:
- Providing dietetic services that align with the individual persons' definition of health and wellbeing, and support strategies.
- Recognising the importance of cultural values and beliefs in our delivery of care and nutrition support strategies.
- Respecting diversity, avoiding bias and discrimination, and challenging opinions based on assumptions.
- Acknowledging how our own lived experiences, culture, values, beliefs, attitudes, and assumptions impact how we engage and interact with clients and broader support systems, the community and our peers.
- Advocating for and facilitating access to culturally safe health services that provide high quality care.
FINANCIAL INSECURITY PRINCIPLES
Precarious employment, low and erratic wages, inadequate and increasingly conditional welfare payments, and escalating living costs are contributing to financial hardship for many people. Further exacerbated by the ongoing impacts of Covid-19. Individuals from diverse backgrounds may face further challenges due to stigma and discrimination impacting their employment opportunities and stability.
We acknowledge that while you may be able to cope, at times there is little financial buffer and capacity to cope with extra expenses. We also understand that circumstances change and you may need support where you hadn’t previously, or vice versa. We encourage you to put your health first where possible and we hope to support you to do this through our sliding scale policy.
MORE INFORMATION
For a copy of our full sliding scale policy, please contact reception. Ph: (03) 9087 8379 or email: reception@eatlovelive.com.au
We have a limited for clients using the sliding scale.
The application process begins in the initial consultation and is driven by the client and/or the practitioner.
Applications are considered after initial consultation to provide informed understanding by practitioners from which action can be taken.
Please also review our Low Cost Eating disorder Resource which may have some other alternatives for finding support at this time.