7.4 Fees, Bartering, Termination & Abandonment

Why fees, termination, and abandonment show up on the Pass/Fail JP exam

Money and endings produce Board files. A.10 Fees and Business Practices, A.11 Termination and Referral, and A.12 Abandonment and Client Neglect are separate 2014 headings. A common wrong outline — including some study checklists that still say “A.11 abandonment” — collapses abandonment into A.11. The TN.gov-hosted 2014 Code opened for this chapter does not. A.11 is termination and referral. A.12 is the abandonment prohibition. On an open-book exam you can look this up. On a closed memory dump you will miss the letter.

Mississippi still makes these letters disciplinable through Rule 7.1 (Licensees adhere to the current Code except where state law, policy, or Board rules supersede it) and Rule 8.1.K (violation of the ACA Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice adopted by the Board). This OpenExamPrep section is independent study material for the applicant Pass/Fail JP exam. It is not a Board, CCE, NBCC, or ACA publication.

Public documentation orders already show how money-adjacent duties travel with A.1.b records. The January 31, 2024 agreed order charged A.1.b, A.1.c, and B.6.a. Fee disputes that produce missing notes, surprise collections, or sudden no-shows without coverage are how A.10 and A.12 join that file.

A.10.a and A.10.b — self-referral and prohibited referral money

A.10.a Self-Referral. Counselors working in an organization (for example a school, agency, or institution) that provides counseling services do not refer clients to their private practice unless the policies of that organization make explicit provisions for self-referrals. In such instances, clients must be informed of other options open to them should they seek private counseling services. A school LPC who walks a student into the LPC’s Saturday private caseload, with no organizational policy and no other-options discussion, fails A.10.a.

A.10.b Unacceptable Business Practices. Counselors do not participate in fee splitting, nor do they give or receive commissions, rebates, or any other form of remuneration when referring clients for professional services. “Referral fees are how colleagues thank each other” is the wrong answer. The 2014 text is a prohibition, not a disclosure-and-proceed rule. If the stem is a kickback for sending a client to a psychiatrist, testing practice, or another LPC, the letter is A.10.b.

A.10.c and A.10.d — setting fees, sliding consideration, and collections

A.10.c Establishing Fees. In establishing fees for professional counseling services, counselors consider the financial status of clients and locality. If a counselor’s usual fees create undue hardship for the client, the counselor may adjust fees, when legally permissible, or assist the client in locating comparable, affordable services. The 2014 PDF uses locality (singular). Sliding consideration is permitted, not required as a named dollar formula, and not prohibited. “A.10.c bans sliding scales” is a wrong answer. “A.10.c requires every Mississippi LPC to publish a Board-set fee schedule” is also wrong — Board Rule 2.1 is the licensure fee table, not the clinical session-fee table.

A.10.d Nonpayment of Fees. If counselors intend to use collection agencies or take legal measures to collect fees from clients who do not pay as agreed, they include that information in their informed consent documents and also inform clients in a timely fashion of intended actions and offer clients the opportunity to make payment. This is why A.2.b already listed nonpayment procedures as an informed-consent topic. A surprise collections letter, with no consent language and no chance to pay, is an A.10.d failure. A.11.c separately allows termination when clients do not pay fees as agreed — after the collections conversation, not instead of it.

A.10.e Bartering and A.10.f Receiving Gifts

A.10.e Bartering. Counselors may barter only if the bartering does not result in exploitation or harm, if the client requests it, and if such arrangements are an accepted practice among professionals in the community. Counselors consider the cultural implications of bartering and discuss relevant concerns with clients and document such agreements in a clear written contract.

Four gates, all required: non-exploitation, client request (not counselor convenience), community professional acceptance, and a clear written contract, with culture discussed. Lawn care for sessions because the counselor “could use the help” fails the client-request gate. An oral “we will figure it out” fails the written-contract gate. A unique private trade that no other local professional would recognize fails the community-practice gate. A.6.b’s parenthetical about unrestricted bartering does not erase A.10.e.

A.10.f Receiving Gifts. Counselors understand the challenges of accepting gifts and recognize that in some cultures small gifts are a token of respect and gratitude. When determining whether to accept a gift, counselors take into account the therapeutic relationship, the monetary value of the gift, the client’s motivation for giving it, and the counselor’s motivation for wanting to accept or decline it. There is no 2014 dollar cap in A.10.f. There is a four-factor analysis. A modest culturally expected token is not automatically unethical. A high-value gift that buys special scheduling, or that the counselor wants because it is valuable, is the exam’s other pole.

A.11 Termination and Referral — competence, values, endings, transfer

A.11.a Competence Within Termination and Referral. If counselors lack the competence to be of professional assistance to clients, they avoid entering or continuing counseling relationships. Counselors are knowledgeable about culturally and clinically appropriate referral resources and suggest these alternatives. If clients decline the suggested referrals, counselors discontinue the relationship. Incompetence is not a reason to keep collecting a fee. It is a reason not to start, or to stop after offering appropriate referrals. If the client refuses those referrals, you still discontinue — you do not keep practicing outside competence because the client prefers you.

A.11.b Values Within Termination and Referral. Counselors refrain from referring prospective and current clients based solely on the counselor’s personally held values, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. Counselors respect client diversity and seek training in areas in which they are at risk of imposing their values onto clients, especially when the counselor’s values are inconsistent with the client’s goals or are discriminatory in nature. Pair this with A.4.b. A.4.b is the in-session imposition ban. A.11.b is the “I will not even see you; here is a referral because of my values” ban. A competence-based A.11.a referral remains available. A values-only referral is not.

A.11.c Appropriate Termination. Counselors terminate a counseling relationship when it becomes reasonably apparent that the client no longer needs assistance, is not likely to benefit, or is being harmed by continued counseling. Counselors may terminate counseling when in jeopardy of harm by the client or by another person with whom the client has a relationship, or when clients do not pay fees as agreed upon. Counselors provide pretermination counseling and recommend other service providers when necessary. Ending because the work is done, is not helping, or is harming the client is an A.11.c duty. Ending because of nonpayment or safety is an A.11.c permission that still includes pretermination counseling and referrals when necessary. A one-line text that says “I quit, good luck” is not A.11.c and will be graded against A.12.

A.11.d Appropriate Transfer of Services. When counselors transfer or refer clients to other practitioners, they ensure that appropriate clinical and administrative processes are completed and open communication is maintained with both clients and practitioners. Release paperwork, a warm handoff the client has authorized, and a complete-enough record for continuity all live here. Ghosting the receiving clinician after a referral is an A.11.d miss.

A.12 Abandonment and Client Neglect — the actual 2014 letter

A.12 Abandonment and Client Neglect. Counselors do not abandon or neglect clients in counseling. Counselors assist in making appropriate arrangements for the continuation of treatment, when necessary, during interruptions such as vacations, illness, and following termination.

A.12 is why a two-week vacation with the office phone silenced and no coverage is a Code problem even when A.11.c would have allowed an orderly ending. Vacations, illness, and the period following termination are named. Coverage, an on-call colleague, crisis instructions in the A.2.b consent, and a records path after closing a practice are the A.12 arrangements. The glossary idea of abandonment as an inappropriate or arbitrary ending that puts the client at risk is the concept; the letter to cite on this exam is A.12.

Do not let a study checklist that listed abandonment under A.11 overwrite the Code you can open during the exam. If a stem asks for the abandonment standard, answer A.12. If it asks about ending because of lack of benefit, nonpayment, or safety, answer A.11.c. If it asks about not being competent to help, answer A.11.a. If it asks about values-based refusal to treat, answer A.11.b.

JP scenario: the handshake barter and the silenced vacation phone

A Meridian LPC, Casey, tells a current client, “My usual fee is a hardship for you, so just mow my lawn each week and we will call it even,” with no written contract and no discussion of community practice or exploitation risk. Casey then leaves for a two-week vacation, forwards the office phone to voicemail, and tells the answering message that messages will be returned after the trip. A colleague says A.10.c sliding consideration already authorized the lawn trade, and that vacation coverage is “just customer service, not the Code.”

A.10.c allows considering hardship and may adjust fees when legally permissible, or help locate comparable affordable services. It does not silently authorize barter. A.10.e requires that bartering not exploit or harm, that the client request it, that it be accepted practice among professionals in the community, that cultural implications be considered, and that the agreement be a clear written contract. A counselor-proposed lawn trade with a handshake fails those gates. A.12 requires counselors not to abandon or neglect clients and to assist in making appropriate arrangements for continuation of treatment when necessary during vacations. A silenced phone with no coverage is the named interruption without the named arrangement. A.11.c would have required pretermination counseling and other-provider recommendations if Casey were ending care for nonpayment rather than leaving town for two weeks. Casey’s Mississippi exposure is already Rule 7.1 / 8.1.K. The next move is to stop the unwritten trade, put any lawful fee adjustment or comparable-referral plan in the A.2.b / A.10.c process, and install vacation coverage that A.12 can recognize — not to wait for a felony under § 73-30-21(1)(b) that 8.1.K never required.