Facts

It means we see the client as an equal member of their treatment team. We work to educate the client about their difficulties and treatment options so that together we can make choices they are comfortable with. With the client’s consent, we also collaborate with their therapist and other medical clinicians.

We provide evaluation, assessment and medication management of psychiatric disorders. This includes laboratory monitoring and use of psychiatric rating scales. We make ourselves very available to clients because of the low client-clinician ratio. We do not provide emergency services for acute illness. If you or someone you know is at risk for harming themselves or others, call 911 now. We also offer one time appointments and 30 day refills for people in transition to a new psychiatric provider. The client cannot be in crisis. It is only a bridge service.

No. We are a low volume, affordable, cash-based practice. If we accepted insurance or Medi-Cal or Medi-Care, we would not be able to provide the personal care that we strive for.

We grandfather all clients at the service fee they initially started with. So their rates never increase. Currently, for new clients, we charge $160 for the initial evaluation and $89/month thereafter. This is set up as a subscription service and billed monthly through PayPal for individuals or through an invoice for agencies. For one-time "bridge services" or consultations we charge $160.

We are licensed in the State of California. We can provide case consultation outside of California but another provider would need to write prescriptions and order laboratory studies.

Yes. The vast majority of medications we prescribe can be called in or faxed to your pharmacy. Certain medications will require that we mail to you the prescription. Stimulant medications used to treat symptoms of ADHD require a hard copy of the prescriptions. For the management of opioid addiction, we cannot provide methadone or buprenorphine. In those cases, we can work with the primary medical doctor or treating clinic to provide the prescription.

A Board Certified Psychiatric Pharmacist is a specialist in psychopharmacology and the medication management of mental illness. There are several requirements to obtain this credential and Advanced Practice Pharmacist license (APP). The individual must have a doctor of pharmacy degree and has either completed a residency program or has had 4 years of training and supervision under a psychiatrist. The APP license requires an additional 3 years of experience separate from training. To obtain the Board Certified Psychiatric Pharmacist credential, extensive testing is provided by the Board of Pharmaceutical Specialties every 7 years.

Our practice includes a psychiatrist who collaborates on cases with the psychiatric pharmacist. This includes case discussion and review of notes and tests performed.

Yes. This is done to help confirm a diagnosis before starting a treatment plan. One of the challenges in mental health has been reliability among clinicians in obtaining accurate diagnoses. Brief psychiatric tests greatly increase the reliability of a diagnosis and thus correct treatment.

Yes, at Dr. Smith's office at 1127 Wilshire Blvd # 1620, Los Angeles, CA 90017. There is an additional fee of $80 per office visit. This is scheduled separately from the telepsychiatry program.

The following is from www.Psychiatry.org. References can be found there. There is substantial evidence of the effectiveness of telepsychiatry and research has found satisfaction to be high among patients, psychiatrists and other professionals. Telepsychiatry is equivalent to in-person care in diagnostic accuracy, treatment effectiveness, quality of care and patient satisfaction. Patient privacy and confidentiality are equivalent to in-person care. Research has also found that overall experiences among all age groups have been good. There is evidence for children, adolescents and adults regarding assessment and treatment (medication and therapy). There are even people for which telemedicine may be preferable to in-person care, for example people with autism or severe anxiety disorders and patients with physical limitations may find the remote treatment particularly useful. Telepsychiatry has been found especially effective with respect to the treatment of PTSD, depression, and ADHD.

We take your private information very seriously. The HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996) is a legislation that guides how your personal information is kept confidential. Although we are a telemedicine based practice none of your information is kept on web servers. We use proprietary desktop software that is double password protected. For communication we use Vsee for both text messages and video conferencing which is HIPAA compliance unlike Skype. We use the Google Cloud platform for email and forms which is also HIPAA compliant and as such Google has provided us with a Business Associate Agreement.

We do not formally provide this. However, any encounter with a client for medication support has similar dynamics as found in therapy which needs to be respected. And medication is not in a vacuum. Mental health challenges effect many areas of a person’s life. Therefore, we do provide brief supportive therapy and education to help people cope with these stressors. However, this does not replace formal psychotherapy. While we focus on management of the neurobiology behind mental health disorders we strongly encourage psychotherapy separately.