Person Centered Tech recognizes that legal-ethical issues around money in mental health practice are probably both the easiest to get right and the easiest to get wrong. HIPAA and professional ethics committees facilitate legal-ethical payment processes by carving out certain boundaries that clinicians need to stay in. If you don’t know the boundaries, you may inadvertently make legal-ethical errors, but if you do know them, running a practice within them can be quite easy.
To support you in staying in that legal-ethical space while also streamlining your practice management procedures, Person Centered Tech is pleased to present the following collection of articles about payment methods. Click an arrow or title below to see a summary of the article and a link to open it. Person Centered Tech has been publishing free articles on technology in mental health practice since 2012. We also offer a continuing education course on Credit/Debit Cards and Electronic Payments in Mental Health Private Practice. If you would like CE credit for your study time, check out the course here.
We love to report news that makes your life easier, and most mental health professionals will find the information in this article quite liberating as it pertains to your responsibilities under HIPAA. HIPAA doesn’t actually want to get in the way of you getting paid! 
Electronic payments in private practice are wonderful, and we heartily encourage you to take advantage of them for client convenience and your own efficiency. A challenge though, is that so much of what’s going on with electronic payments is invisible to you and your clients. This article clarifies what you should make sure your clients know about before diving into the e-payment process. 
Concerned about credit card fees in your practice? Thinking about passing the fees on to clients but not sure if it’s legal or ethical? This article fully explores the issue. And we surveyed around 60 therapists to get their opinions on both the ethical and business issues involved. 
A lot of private practice consultants advise therapists to get a card on file at intake. Holding credit card info from clients can ensure you get deductibles, no-show fees, and other payments. Since most mental health professionals are unaware of the varied regulatory concerns involved, this article explores methods and pitfalls. 
PCI DSS is a special set of regulations that you have to comply with if you take credit cards in your practice. The good news is that it’s quite a bit easier than HIPAA. This article helps make sense of it.