1. Most people find insurance either confusing/boring/frustrating—so you are not alone.

2. This practice tries to take most commercial/business insurances for PSYCHIATRIC SERVICES—even though 80-90% of NYC psychiatrists do not take any insurance at all.

3. In order to continue to take insurance, we need your help in confirming your benefits and in alerting us to any changes in insurance carrier or to changes in copays or deductible.

4. We take you at your word, but occasionally insurance companies send different info or updates.

5. For insurance to cover your appts, insurance companies require that you cover your copay /coinsurance /deductible. They ask for “receipts” via PayPal, Zelle, or cancelled checks. To avoid complications with your insurance company, please forward your “receipt” when you pay.

6. I send bills via PayPal or Square, but feel free to use Zelle. I try to avoid Venmo if possible. You do not need a PayPal account to use it because the bill lets you enter your credit card info.

7. Currently, about half of all insurance policies have deductibles that must be met before benefits “kick in” and the insurance company covers all but copay/coinsurance. Deductibles are especially confusing, and I can forward a video upon request, but let me explain here:

8. Think about your homeowner’s or renter’s or car or insurance. Most likely, there is a deductible. After you reach that deductible, your insurance pays benefits for your losses. For example, let’s say that an (uninsured) car hits your car (but does not hurt you), and the damages are $5,000 but you have a $1000 deductible on your insurance. So, if you want to fix your car, you pay the first $1000 and then the insurance company pays the remaining $4,000 needed to fix your car.

9. Does that make sense? It may sound insulting to compare human health to fender-benders, but that is how the insurance industry operates—unless you’re in the lucky half w/o deductibles.

10. To comply with the SUNSHINE ACT, which requires a “good faith estimate” of fees, we ask that you provide us with specifics about your copay/deductible, how much of the deductible remains, and if the deductible applies to telepsychiatry appts, and if your insurance uses “specialist” copays for psychiatrists or if your insurer considers psychiatrists to be “primary care behavioral health” instead. With that information, we can provide a reasonable estimate.

11. Please know that each insurance policy is different, and that some insurers have 5,000 different contracts—so we need specific information about your policy in order to give accurate info.

12. If your insurance changes, or if you expect it to change, please let us know ASAP, so that we can confirm that we are in your new plan and can give you an updated “good faith estimate.” We can send a new registration form, or you can change your original form or forward your new card.