All appointments are prorated for $100 per 20 minute appointment or $300 per hour. Payment is due at time of service. We do not bill insurance companies directly, but we do provide a SuperBill document that can be provided by you to your insurance company for partial reimbursement to you.
For the Dementia Screening Test ONLY appointments, you can be anywhere in the world! You’ll just need to take the results to your own physician. For all others, you must be located physically in Texas, Colorado or Missouri at the time of your appointment. See clinic policies for more information.
| SERVICE | Estimated time* | Fee |
| Initial psychiatric diagnostic evaluation | 1 hour | $300 |
| Follow-up visit, simple** | 20 minutes | $100 |
| Follow-up visit, complex** | 40 minutes | $200 |
| Dementia Screening (test only) | 20 minutes | $100 |
**I’m using the terms “simple” and “complex” here only to illustrate how involved outpatient appointments can be sometimes. There is a wide variety! Many patients are doing very well within 6 months of therapy and only need the minimum number of appointments per year to keep their refills coming (simple), while others need more support and time (complex).
How many appointments are needed?
The duration and frequency of the appointments depends entirely on how well you are doing. For a patient to safely and effectively use a telehealth platform for mental health, appointments should typically not be required more often than every week or two. The longest interval between appointments is 2 months due to the telehealth nature of this practice. I do offer my own psychotherapy services, but a local psychologist is usually the best way to go. I recommend searching Psychology Today to find a therapist in your area (they are much less expensive than an MD prescriber).
No Surprises Sample Schedule
- $300 – Initial psychiatric diagnostic appointment, 1 hour
- TWO WEEKS LATER – $200 – Follow up medication management appointment, 40 min
- ONE MONTH LATER – $200 – Follow up medication management appointment, 40 min
- ONE MONTH LATER – $100 – Follow up medication management appointment, 20 min
- $100 – Add-on Dementia Screening Test (Montreal Cognitive Assessment)
- TWO MONTHS LATER – $100 – Follow up medication management appointment, 20 min
In this example, it took 3.5 months for the patient to get medically stable with quicker, routine follow up appointments for refills. The cost was $900. Once stable on two-month follow up interval, the ongoing cost would be $100 every two months (or $50/mo average). Decent insurance can be expected to reimburse about half.
If you need to increase the frequency of appointments, just make yourself a sooner psychiatry appointment online! If I’m too booked out, contact me through the secure patient portal and I’ll see if I can work you in.
Time Spent with Pharmacy Prior Authorizations
Choosing inexpensive, generic medications is usually my first option, not only due to the cost, but also because new medications’ health effects are generally unknown then they first hit the market. For a new medication to gain FDA approval, only a 6 week drug study is required. Many side effects throughout the history of pharmacopeia have emerged much later.
Therefore, I shouldn’t need to be billing you for my time on the phone with your insurance company trying to get approval for Prior Authorizations. Many people don’t realize that clinics have to hire multiple personnel to be on the phone all day long with insurance companies to do this. So, if you find yourself in a situation where we have to fight for insurance to pay for a medication or an intensive outpatient program, I may have to bill you for the administrative minimum 20 minutes at $100 for your annual Prior Authorization in addition to the cost of clinical care. Despite this, some medications are just worth it in certain situations.