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Fees & Insurance |
Credit: James Green |
The US health care system is not well designed - it is built around private insurance companies which have a tendency to generate bureaucratic obstacles to treatment rather than maximize long-term patient care, particularly in the area of mental health. Consequently, like many private psychiatry practices, Apraku Psychiatry does not participate in insurance networks.
Nevertheless, if you would like to use your insurance benefits to defray the costs of our services, there are still a couple ways in which this can be done. The most common route is by using a superbill to claim reimbursement from your insurance carrier. We provide superbills to patients on request through the patient portal. Signed by your doctor, superbills contain details regarding diagnosis and treatment, as well as service fees. Certain insurance plans (e.g. PPOs) will accept such documentation in support of claims for out-of-network benefits. To check your plan provides such benefits, quote the following CPT codes to your insurance carrier, and clarify that you are seeking treatment from an out-of-network psychiatrist: - initial evaluations: 99204 & 90838, - follow-ups: 99214 & 90833. Alternatively, in certain cases, we may be able to bill your insurance carrier directly. To verify whether this may be possible, please contact us before scheduling your first appointment with the following details: your full name, date of birth, address, insurance name and member ID number. We ask that new patients provide valid payment details when booking their first appointment. All major cards, including HSA/FSA cards, are accepted. Payment details are vaulted securely by our payments processor: we do not hold them directly. Your payment method will be pre-authorized in advance of each appointment and charged afterwards. As of January 1st, 2024, fees for our services are as follows: - For a 75-minute initial evaluation, we charge $446. - Regular follow-up appointments with established patients last half an hour and cost $238. - Therapy sessions last 50 minutes and cost $292. (NB: this appointment type is only available by prior agreement with your doctor; a special scheduling link is required to book these sessions.) - Our practice policies provide for a 50% charge in case of late cancellation or no-show (including when the patient is not physically located in the state listed on the intake form). We understand that this page contains a lot of information that may be hard to digest. The practice is committed to expanding access to mental health care, and we encourage you to get in touch by email before scheduling your first appointment to discuss any concerns you may have about insurance and fees. |
