I know for a fact that my new therapist (I call him Dr. New Guy) will write me a letter for testosterone. The problem is that the letter is going to cost around 200 dollars and my family doesn't exactly have money to throw around.
I've been told that you can't actually be charged for the letter itself, but you can be charged for the time it took to write it.

Here are the questions:
1. Has anybody else heard that you can only be charged for the time it takes to write it? If so, do you think that I'd be able to have him write it during a therapy session? At that point, even if Dr. New Guy took two sessions to write it I'd only be paying 80 dollars and insurance would cover the rest.
2. Do most therapists charge for T letters? If so, is $200 a reasonable price? Did you pay more or less than that (if you paid at all)?
3. Does anyone know of anywhere that will do informed consent with minors in Indiana? I've been looking around and haven't come up with anything, but if I could bypass the therapy/letter writing thing I'd love to.
4. Does anyone know of any endocrinologists in Indiana that work with minors and use a sliding scale?

Thanks for the help

Can only say that sounds unusual. My therapist isn't charging to write the letter, she is only charging for the 12 sessions she requires to cover her butt before she writes it.

Neither of my therapists charged me for writing letters for T, for top surgery, and for lower surgery.  They did, however, charge me for the sessions they required prior to writing them.  Neither required an excessive number of sessions, IMO.

While it's probably legal (charging) I'd say it's a bit unusual.


Jay

I've run across three different scenarios as regards to getting letters:

• The letter is included as part of a session, i.e. "free".
• An hour of time is allocated to writing a letter and charged at the usual session rate.
• The letter is part of a package deal for session/letter at a quoted price. This is usually only for 2nd letters with 2nd therapists.

A letter for a driver's license is fairly trivial.
A letter for SRS recommendation can require a bit of work and details.

You are in the USA so you have to pay.  That's all there is to it.
But - pr4esumably you have tried looking round for local or regional clinics or help services who just might do the job for less?

I did not need a letter for T, but I did need need one for top surgery. My top surgery letter was not an extra expense, but by the rules for where I was going I had to see my therapist a certain number of sessions before the letter could be written (I think it was 6 sessions). I live in the USA.

I didn't have to pay for my letter. I just paid for the therapy sessions before I got my letter.

I'm not sure I got a T letter...
I had already had top surgery and went to a GLBT medical center in the city to get T.  The guy I see there only asked for my previous therapists email address so that he could make sure I'd actually ever been to therapy. 

She[the therapist] had charged me for a surgery letter, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't all that much.  At very most it was the cost of an appt. [which i believe was somewhere around 100]  but I'm also not sure it was even that much.

I have 2 letters for T and didn't have to pay for either, just the sessions which insurance covered.

I didn't have to pay for a T letter either.

I did not pay for the letter, only the sessions.  The first session was the only one I needed and it was a really good price anyway