It’s affiliated with a hospital, so maybe that has something to do with the high charges? Although others have confirmed that this price is within the realm of normal, maybe they need to charge a lot and get money where they can because if they’re affiliated with a hospital perhaps they have a large-ish percentage of patients who are unable to pay which raises the cost for everyone else. This is pure speculation though.
I’m wondering if maybe the receptionist meant follow up appointments are billed the same way as regular appointments, but initial consultations are not. She may have assumed that I knew it would be a very high cost for the first appointment.
I’m with Blackberry. If the PCP won’t refill without a damn good medical reason, this practice sounds like they are “churning the bill” as we say in the legal field: doing a whole lot of nothing that looks good on paper and runs up the tab.
I had an OB/GYN tell me it was against their “policy” to write me a 1-year birth control prescription and I needed a “checkup” every 6 months - though I have been on the same product 10 years with no risk factors. That’s basically a scam to get patients in twice as often as is medically necessary by holding their prescription hostage, and I refuse to go back there.
Ugh, I would refuse to go back there too. Isn’t it standard now for full exams (Pap smear, etc) to be done every two years now assuming everything is normal test wise? So every 6 months for a check up is really excessive even if they’re not doing a full exam.
They probably are running up the bill and I really wonder if it’s because of the connection to a hospital. I looked at the back of my bill and it says “blah blah blah please pay in timely manner so costs of unnecessary collection procedures are not unfairly passed on to all our patients.”
Anyway, I called and they won’t budge on the price, but I can pay it in two separate amounts (one this month and one next month) which is helpful. I have a friend who goes to a therapist who apparently charges very reasonably, so I will ask her about that this weekend.
We had our son tested, not a Psychiatrist though, I think she was a Certified Counselor or something. The quoted price was $150 an hour but what wasn’t clear was that she bills one hour of office time, for writing reports I guess, for each hour she spends with a patient. So, what appeared to me to be an hour of her time was actually billed $300 rather than the $150 I expected. This is legal it turns out.
I asked up front how much the whole thing was going to cost and the bill was double the amount she told me verbally. So the question should be very specific - “how much is this going to cost, in total” - and the answer should be in writing if you can get it.
My experience is that testing is usually double the normal appointment costs, although triple is not unheard of. So it’s not too unreasonable, but I bet you could have gotten it for around $300 if you were to have shopped around.
Unless you can find someone who offers sertraline (generic Zoloft) on their cheap prescription plan, I’d probably recommend using the online pharmacy my mom uses for prescriptions not covered by her insurance: Health Warehouse. You might also try GoodRx.com to get coupons, if that’ll be cheaper. Just be warned that you need to go the places in question to find out the true price. Don’t trust GoodRx for coupon prices.
This here. A few years ago, I had a friend with big problems. Initial charge was $400. And, I lied when I said a ‘few’. More like 25.
Initial consultations cost more.
For in-network, tho, it seems like you’re getting a bit of the ol’ grease job.
Most of the primary care docs I work with do manage anxiety and anti-depressant meds. The only time I see them referring on to a psychiatrist is for people who are needing fine tuning on their meds. Off to Psychiatrist for consultation, then back to primary doc for management.
I am not surprised that your visit to the Psychiatrist was coded and billed as a new patient. But I would think that subsequent visits will be less.
I think it would be appropriate to ask your PCP to manage your meds after the consult.
I’ll see if my primary care doctor will manage the meds, otherwise it’s off to see someone else. I may do that regardless. I’m seeing another claim from them from a previous visit to my PCP quite a while back*. This is not a bill that’s been mailed to me- it’s a claim that’s showing up when I view my health insurance page and it’s about $100 that I will apparently be paying, so I’ll fill the prescription somewhere cheap, but will cancel all subsequent appointments at this practice until I pay everything off and decide what to do. This place is very expensive- apparently a flu shot is $75 which I mentioned in another thread, although I double checked my bill and that actually WAS covered by insurance in the end.
*The charge from the visit during which he referred me to the psychiatrist. I’m not sure why it took so long for them to submit a claim. I actually thought I already had been billed for that.
Of course, I don’t know your doctor- - but you might not have to pay it., My insurance claims often have some amount that I’m responsible for because the doctor isn’t officially “in network”. But they accept whatever my insurance pays anyway and I don’t get billed.