Questions and answers for potential patients

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Parking is available across the street from my office. Some parking meters in the area allow you to park for three hours (on Delaware St, for example), but many only allow you to park for one hour. Please be careful if you park at a metered spot. The meter attendants in downtown Towson are private contractors who get a commission for every ticket they write and are very strict and punctual.

I am a board certified general psychiatrist in a solo practice, and I care for patients with a wide variety of psychiatric problems. I run my practice by myself to keep my overhead down. This choice has certain advantages, most notably that I deal with everyone directly and that it is easy to keep your case confidential. It also has some disadvantages, primarily in that I sometimes have to triage requests for my time and that it isn't feasible for me to spend lots of time on insurance company or legal paperwork. If you want a doctor who

• limits the size of his practice,
• does a careful diagnostic interview,
• deals with you directly,
• does psychotherapy,
• doesn't do 10 minute appointments,
• doesn't recommend that everyone who sees him gets medication,
• doesn't make you wait (over 95% of my appointments start on time), and
• is usually available by phone or email.

I think that there is a good chance we can work together successfully.

If you need to have lots of forms filled out frequently or urgently, want a disability evaluation, are involved in a legal case, or just want to be seen once or twice a year for medication refills, I am probably not the best doctor for you.

I have experience in treating most common psychiatric disorders such as:

• Dementia,
• Mood disorders,
• Schizophrenia,
• Panic attacks,
• Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
• Other anxiety disorders, and
• Personality disorders.

I have a special interest in treating patients who have:

• Neuropsychiatric problems,
• Chronic pain, or
• Multiple concurrent medical disorders.

I also enjoy treating physicians and their families. Currently, about 25% of the people in my practice are physicians and about 30% are family members of physicians.

I do not accept patients who:

• Are less than 16 years old,
• Have a problem better treated by a child psychiatrist, or
• Need an evaluation for legal problems,

because I do not feel qualified to treat them.

Read my conflict of interest policy.

I do not have any dealings with drug companies. I do not talk with drug company representatives. I do not accept anything from them such as samples or honorariae. None of my research is supported by drug companies.

Read about my privacy policies.

In general, I work Wednesday and Thursday afternoon and evenings and the first Saturday morning of each month

I would prefer to talk with you on the phone before your first appointment, primarily to make sure that I feel that I may be able to help you.

In general, I try to avoid having someone other than the patient be involved in setting the first appointment time, unless the patient is a minor.

No. I do not participate in any insurance plans, including Medicaid. I have opted out of Medicare. If you need it, I can supply a receipt for you to submit to your insurance company. Your insurance policy is a contract between you and your insurance company, not between me and your insurance company. You are ultimately responsible for paying for your care.

If your insurance says that they will pay "reasonable and customary fees" you should know that these fees are basically what your insurance company chooses to pay and that although they often claim that these fees somehow represent average fees for the area, there is no evidence that the term is anything but a marketing ploy.

I usually use one of the following billing codes:

Many people need me to fill out the State of Maryland Uniform Treatment Plans. Under Practice forms, I have partially filled out forms for you to download. Please fill in the top part of the form above the line that starts “Have you communicated with the PCP…” bring it with you and let me know at the beginning of your session so that I have time to complete it.

I would urge you to keep copies of any documents that you send to insurance companies to save your time and mine and to avoid additional fees.

My fees are based on the time that I work on your case. I charge for face to face time and any significant amount of time that I spend working for you when you are not in my office. I do not publish my session fees on the Internet, but would be happy to discuss them with you over the phone.

Basically, I believe that it is best if everything I do for you is done during your session. Especially with respect to housekeeping issues like forms, prescriptions, letters, billing issues, and so forth, I feel that the quality of your care is much better when I have your records in front of me and can ask you questions. Furthermore, you can see that the job is done.

If you have special needs for your prescriptions (such as needing a 90 day supply for mail order), we need to take care of this during your session, not after.

At the beginning of every session I will ask you whether we need to complete any housekeeping issues at that session so that we can plan enough time to complete in during your session.

If a housekeeping issue comes up between sessions, it will have to wait unless it is something that is absolutely vital to your treatment. If you need me to do work for you on an emergency basis between sessions, you will need to pay for my time in 15 minute increments.

The most common emergency task that I need to do between sessions is filling prescriptions that have expired. I would urge you to take care of all prescription issues during your session to avoid extra charges.

I expect to be paid by check or credit card at the time of service. I accept Visa and Mastercard. For security reasons, my billing system does not retain any of your credit card information. I would prefer that you not pay in cash because I would rather not have currency in my office.