Psychiatry

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Services may vary based on health plan or employer. To see which CareVitality services you have, please review your welcome letter in the mail, speak with your benefits manager, or call us at 1-800-376-0212.

Services costs may vary based on health plan, employer or if you are self-pay ($269) for a 45-minute initial visit and $99 for each subsequent 15-minute follow up visit. Please set up your account to see which services are available to you and their cost. Also, your welcome letter or benefit manager can discuss how much they cost.

A typical initial in office visit usually costs approximately $400. Telepsychiatry services with CareVitality’s Telepsychiatry group are 2/3 the cost of a traditional in office encounter without the need for travel time or costs to travel to an office.

Telepsychiatry is a face-to-face virtual/ online psychiatry visit to be scheduled at your convenience in the location of your choice (ie your home) to discuss any behavioral or mental challenges you are experiencing. Our psychiatrists are able to prescribe medications for the treatment of your diagnosed mental condition. Log into the CareVitality mobile app or www.CareVitality.com to get started.

No, there is no price increase to talk to a therapist at night, weekends or holidays.

Our psychiatrists listen, understand your current situation, diagnose, create an appropriate treatment plan and order any needed diagnostic studies, medications, labs and referrals to help you move forward and live your best life.

Besides an initial consultation and diagnosis, here are a some reasons patients decide to have a virtual/ online visit to see a psychiatrist:

• • You believe you have a mental health disorder but have not been diagnosed
  • You have one or more mental disorder diagnosis
  • You relocated and need a new psychiatrist
  • Your psychiatrist is on maternity leave
  • You would like a second opinion
    • You are having complex side effects to your current medications
    • Your general practitioner is treating you and do not believe you are getting better
    • You have questions regarding your existing doctor’s treatment plan
  • Medication Reasons:
    • You want to change your psychiatric medication
    • You need a one or more psychiatric medications

You can select your psychiatrist by reviewing their background and schedule an appointment time that is convenient for you without taking time off work and travel expenses. The face-to-face virtual visit is completed privately and securely through your smartphone or computer.

No need to sit in traffic and eliminate the risk of catching COVID or other virus/ bacteria by seeing a therapist in your desired location (ie. comfort of your home).

Traditionally in the past, 12.5% of Americans affected by emotional distress seek care for such things as:

• Anxiety
• Depression (Major Depressive Disorder, Postpartum Depression)
• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
• Bipolar Disorder
• Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD/ADHD)
• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
• Panic Attacks

Now telepsychiatry offers a convenient, private and secure method to meet with an experienced board-certified psychiatrist to help you get through hurdles life throws your way to and more quickly get back to living your best life.

Usually, an initial telepsychiatry visit is 45 minutes and each follow-up visit is 15 minutes. A psychiatrist may recommend you see a therapist as well to help improve your mental health. If so, the psychiatrist will recommend a doctoral-level psychologist, a master level social worker or counselor as part of CareVitality’s Telehealth Group for a virtual/ online visit.

A patient would see a psychiatrist for diagnosis and medication management. A therapist (psychologist, social worker or counselor) does not prescribe medications but provides talk therapy. Sometimes a patient may need a psychiatrist or therapist but most of the time a combination of medication management and talk therapy are the best form of treatment. When a therapist or psychiatrist assesses a patient they will be able to recommend whether one or both treatment approaches are needed.

Yes, our psychiatrists are only available through scheduled sessions. To schedule an appointment that works best for you there are three (3) options:

1. Log on to the CareVitality mobile application
2. Visit our website (www.CareVitality.com)
3. Call us at 1-800-376-0212.

Once you finish your initial visit and you would like to continue working with this psychiatrist you can schedule your follow up visits.

Yes, as long as we have guardian/ parental consent our state specific psychiatrists are experienced in treating children and adolescents virtual/ online therapy. Since the child is a minor, the parent needs to create a sub-account to their child’s account to schedule the child’s/ adolescent’s psychiatry appointment.

Our Chief Psychiatry Officer carefully vets our network of psychiatrists practicing at CareVitality’s Telehealth Group. A patient can choose from a psychiatrist licensed to practice in their state. The psychiatrist is trained in treatment via telehealth by our Chief Psychiatry Officer. As part of your initial session, our psychiatrist will put a thorough assessment together, prescribe medication(s) and schedule future visits for medication management. Your psychiatrist may recommend scheduling a time to meet with our doctoral or masters level therapists (psychologists, social workers and counselors) who can provide virtual/ online therapy sessions.

Absolutely, we pride ourselves on keeping your patient information secure and private. This is a top priority for CareVitality. We provide healthcare cybersecurity consulting to health systems and practices for over a decade and we have designed our system to be private, secure, and HIPAA-compliant for your online visit.

Yes, just select the state you are in to seek care and you will be provided a list of board certified psychiatrists available in that state.

At this time we provide care in the United States but we will be expanding internationally in the future.

An online psychiatry session is essentially the same as an office visit except it is from the convenience of the location of your choosing, eliminating unneeded travel time and costs. During your session, you will discuss your current behavioral/ emotional symptoms, possible reasons leading to these symptoms, your medical and mental health history and what your goal is for the virtual visit. Then, your psychiatrist will come up with an assessment and recommended treatment plan for improvement. This will be an ongoing conversation and can change your treatment plan if your needs change over time.

Yes, your psychiatrist can prescribe all medications from a virtual/ online visit except controlled substances. However, your psychiatrist can coordinate with your primary care provider to prescribe the controlled substance based on your psychiatrist’s recommendation.

It is your decision if you would like to share these notes with your primary care physician. If you decide to have these notes shared you can have this done in the following ways:

1. You can give the primary care physician’s fax number to the psychiatrist or we can electronically transmit your clinical visit summary to your requested physician once the therapist receives your consent.
2. You will have a copy of your session summary in your CareVitality account you can choose to send to your desired physician, save or print a copy for yourself.

Please take the opportunity to review the psychiatrists experience, qualifications, and professional skills to help narrow down your search. Then, feel free to interview the remaining psychiatrists to find the best one for you to schedule your appointment.

Collaborative Care Psychiatry is when our psychiatrist coordinates your care with your primary care provider. This is a fairly new model over the last few years that has proven to be quite effective. This allows your primary care provider to more effectively handle your physical along with your mental health by collaborating with our psychiatrist to help provide you the best outcomes to your care. Additionally, based on your situation collaboration with a nutritionist or therapist may further help you achieve optimal wellness.

Prescribing controlled substances needs to be done very carefully due to the risks of combining controlled substances as well as their potential for addiction. It is important to have a psychiatrist’s higher level knowledge set to help guide a primary care provider on the best controlled substance(s) to take for each patient and their situation. Also, it helps avoid multiple providers prescribing controlled substances along with other medications. Our psychiatrist will work with your primary care provider to recommend what medications will be the best for your condition avoiding medication interactions, duplication of medications and overuse of medications.

When your primary care provider and psychiatrist collaborate on your care it allows you to have the best outcomes in the shortest time which is very important when you are in mental distress. Every moment counts and effects you from living your best life.

When your physicians collaborate together this avoids duplicate labs, medications and unneeded office or virtual visits from being needed which ultimately reduces costs to manage and monitor your condition.

As per The Ryan Haight Act of 2008, medications that can become addictive are considered “controlled” substances and are only to be prescribed by a provider who has met you in person first. Examples of controlled substance medications used for mental health are as follows:

• Stimulants – used for ADD/ADHD, fatigue, depression, cognitive issues, and narcolepsy – include medications such as: Adderall, Concerta, Dexedrine, Dextroamphetamine, Focalin, Methylphendiate, Nuvigil, Ritalin, Provigil, and Vyvanse
• Hypnotics – used for insomnia – include medications such as Ambien, Lunesta, and Sonata
• Benzodiazepines – used for anxiety, panic, sleep disorders, tremors, and seizures – include medications such as Ativan, Klonopin, Librium, Restoril, Valium, and Xanax.

Once you meet with our psychiatrist we will send your clinical visit summary to your primary care provider with the recommended prescription(s) to be prescribed. Your primary care provider will either prescribe the controlled substances, request you schedule a visit prior to prescribing these controlled substances or may deny filling the prescription. If the primary care provider refuses to work in a collaborative model you can switch to a provider who prefers to work with a psychiatrist who specializes in mental health and controlled substances.

The psychiatrist will perform your initial visit as well as any follow-up visits needed for you. During the visit, they will diagnose you as well as put together a treatment plan. As part of your follow up visits, they will manage and monitor your condition and alter medication(s) or treatment plan as needed. Once each visit is complete the psychiatrist, given the patient’s consent, he/she will send any non-controlled substance medication(s) to the pharmacy. Then, the psychiatrist will send your clinical visit summary to the primary care provider along with recommended labs, specialist referrals, diagnostic tests and/ or controlled substances for the primary care provider to order for you.

Your primary care provider will review the psychiatrist’s clinical visit summary from your visit along with their recommended labs, specialist referrals, diagnostic tests and/ or controlled substances to be ordered for you. Once the primary care provider has ordered these items he/ she will send back the results of such evaluations and tests to the psychiatrist for review. If the primary care has any questions for the psychiatrist he/she can communicate over a secure CareVitality phone line designated for provider communication.

Have your primary care provider’s fax number available for your virtual/ online visit with your psychiatrist. Notify you, primary care provider, that you would like him/ her to work with your psychiatrist and that he/she will be sending over the visit summary including your diagnosis, treatment plan and any recommendations for your primary care provider.