8 AM to 5 PM
We are a community psychiatry clinic and so during holidays and outside office hours we cannot provide services. Please call 911 during the times we are not available.
We use Zoom. Zoom is a HIPAA compliant and safe systems with the highest quality video and audio available.
The matching system is a innovation in mental health because a patient working with an incorrectly matched mental health provider leads to codependent chronic conditions instead of solutions.
Let’s say you were going to see a cardiologist. Regardless of who you see, they’ll likely treat your heart problem in a very similar way. In mental health, the treatment can vary widely between providers because the medical field still doesn’t understand the mind as well as it does the rest of the body.
The patient provider matching system is run through SC-Brain, the SavantCare neural network. This looks at many factors and takes input from the doctors before making a decision.
The reason for no-match is simply no-match and should not be construed to indicate anything being wrong with someone.
The insurance reimbursements for mental health services are among the lowest of all specialities since it is not a procedure oriented service.
Psychiatrists and therapists are providing services to patients with depression, anxiety and anger management issues. Most of the patients are very understanding, but a small percentage of patients put a disproportionate amount of stress on the organization.
Most medical services have a metric that allows measurable and trackable data.
For example: We can measure temperature for a simple problem illness such as the flu, and the heart rate for complex problem of the heart.
However, for the most complex organ of all, the brain, tracking technologies are still being developed.
Our psychiatrists/therapists are in-network with the following insurances:
We are actively in negotiations with:
Seeing a psychiatrist is a difficult choice and one way to make it slightly easier is by giving privacy.
The SavantCare in clinic companion app does the task of checking you in, informing the doctor and subsequently checking you out. We are one of the very few clinics that takes most insurances including medicare and keeping our costs low allows us to do that.
Calling or texting the SavantCare phone number connects you to the doctors personal admin assistant who can help you with any questions.
Follow these steps to login to your myhealth portal:
Because our doctors see patients back to back throughout the day, going over the allotted appointment time will cut into the next patient’s time.
As a courtesy to other SavantCare patients, please try your best to be on time and plan ahead. If you arrive too late to allow time for proper care, you may be asked to reschedule.
If you are more than 15 minutes late to your appointment, you will be asked to reschedule.
Because our doctors see patients back to back throughout the day, going over the allotted appointment time will cut into the next patient’s time.
As a courtesy to other SavantCare patients, please try your best to be on time and plan ahead. If you arrive too late to allow time for proper care, you may be asked to reschedule.
If you are more than 15 minutes late to your appointment, you will be asked to reschedule.
Insurance companies will only reimburse 1 session if you see a therapist and a psychiatrist on the same day. So if you are paying out of pocket then you can see a psychiatrist and a therapist on the same day. If you are paying through insurance then you cannot see a psychiatrist and a therapist on the same day. If you travel from a far distance and it is difficult to come on 2 different days you may want to pay for the psychiatrist using the insurance and for the therapy session out of pocket.
We use a secure help desk request (HDR) system for communications between patients and their care team.
There are two ways to create an HDR:
step 1
step 2
step 3
Login to my portal and click on the Admin file option. You will get to see the “HDR communication through email security level” option. Here, you will be able to choose among Level 1, Level 2, Level 3 of HDR communication.
By default, Level 3 has been selected but you can change the level based on your requirements.
In Level 1 (Not preferable), you will get to see all the interactions between you and your care team in the email. Besides, you can reply to your HDR from your email itself. Note: This is not fully secured as anyone can access your email and read the communications between you and your care team.
In Level 2 (Not preferable), you will be notified with an auto-login URL. Click on it to check the reply of your HDR.
Note: This is also not fully secured. Anyone can access your email and see your HDR communications as you are automatically logged in.
In Level 3 (Recommended), you will just receive a notification, asking you to go to the patient portal and check your HDR by providing your login credentials.
Note: This is fully secured, as you need to login to your HDR by providing all the credentials in the secured server.
Why do we have 3 different levels of HDR communication?
In Level 1, you can have the convenience to reply to your HDR just from your email.
In Level 2, you don’t need to remember your login credentials every time to see your HDR response.
In Level 3, you need to login to your HDR to go through your conversations.
So, choose the level based on your requirements and convenience!
We receive many requests for refills each day, and the process takes time (especially when your provider is not in the office).
An office visit may be required (to monitor your overall health and condition) prior to refilling your medication.
Please allow 3-5 business days for new prescriptions or refills to be sent to the pharmacy.
Why?
Therefore, ideally make the request when you pick up your last refill.
NOTE: You should always request a refill at least 3 days prior to running out of medications.
The 3 ways in the preferred order are:
1. Log into my-health portal and follow the steps shown in the screenshots below:
Step 1:
Step 2:
Step 3:
Step 4:
2. Use the sign-to-emr app when you are at the clinic
3. Request the doctors admin assistant to email / fax you a PDF that you can then sign and return back to the doctors admin assistant.
We use a secure help desk request (HDR) system for communications between patients and their care team.
There are two ways to create an HDR:
step 1
step 2
step 3
Login to my portal and click on the Admin file option. You will get to see the “HDR communication through email security level” option. Here, you will be able to choose among Level 1, Level 2, Level 3 of HDR communication.
By default, Level 3 has been selected but you can change the level based on your requirements.
In Level 1 (Not preferable), you will get to see all the interactions between you and your care team in the email. Besides, you can reply to your HDR from your email itself. Note: This is not fully secured as anyone can access your email and read the communications between you and your care team.
In Level 2 (Not preferable), you will be notified with an auto-login URL. Click on it to check the reply of your HDR.
Note: This is also not fully secured. Anyone can access your email and see your HDR communications as you are automatically logged in.
In Level 3 (Recommended), you will just receive a notification, asking you to go to the patient portal and check your HDR by providing your login credentials.
Note: This is fully secured, as you need to login to your HDR by providing all the credentials in the secured server.
Why do we have 3 different levels of HDR communication?
In Level 1, you can have the convenience to reply to your HDR just from your email.
In Level 2, you don’t need to remember your login credentials every time to see your HDR response.
In Level 3, you need to login to your HDR to go through your conversations.
So, choose the level based on your requirements and convenience!
We receive many requests for refills each day, and the process takes time (especially when your provider is not in the office).
An office visit may be required (to monitor your overall health and condition) prior to refilling your medication.
Please allow 3-5 business days for new prescriptions or refills to be sent to the pharmacy.
Why?
Therefore, ideally make the request when you pick up your last refill.
NOTE: You should always request a refill at least 3 days prior to running out of medications.
The 3 ways in the preferred order are:
1. Log into my-health portal and follow the steps shown in the screenshots below:
Step 1:
Step 2:
Step 3:
Step 4:
2. Use the sign-to-emr app when you are at the clinic
3. Request the doctors admin assistant to email / fax you a PDF that you can then sign and return back to the doctors admin assistant.
Missed appointments prevent you from receiving care, and prevent the doctor from seeing another patient in need of care during that time.
You will be charged $75 within 3 business days of your appointment, if you do not cancel before 24 hours (Excluding weekends or holidays) of your appointment. If an unpreventable situation arises, SavantCare may waive of reduce the amount.
Note: For an appointment booked within 24 hours, you’re automatically subjected to the above cancellation policy.
There are 4 key concepts:
Any medical services that is sold can be divided into 1 of 2 types:
What in the world is in-network vs out-of-network services?
For e.g. if medical services costs $300
| Type of services | Patient to pay SC | Insurance company to pay SC |
|---|---|---|
| Out of network services | $300 | $0 |
| In network services | If annual deductible has not been met: co-pay / co-insurance / amount above co-pay and co-insurance | $0 |
| If annual deductible has been met: co-pay / co-insurance | Amount above copay and co-insurance |
Co-pay is usually a small fixed amount for e.g. $20.
John’s Mom always thinks there is something wrong with her and if she did not need to pay anything to go to the doctor she will go to the doctor every-time she sneezes.
Co-insurance is usually a small percentage of total cost like 15%
John’s Mom always thinks there is something wrong with her and out of 100 sneezes she stopped going to the doctor for 90 sneezes since she had to pay $20 but for the other 10 times she sneezed she went to the doctor and the doctor had to spend $10,000 examining her whole chest. So the insurance company said to John’s mom that you need to pay 15% of the total cost. So that out of 10 sneezes when the doctor said do you really want me to do your chest exam … John’s mom will decline 9 times and say let me wait for a week and see if it gets better.
John is very high money saver and a healthy person. He only wants insurance in case there is a catastrophe like a car accident and he wants to pay low insurance premium. So the insurance company will sell him a plan with a annual deductible of $10,000 so that John only uses the plan in case of a big catastrophe and does not use the plan for day to day sneezes and coughs.
By selling a plan of annual deductible of $10,000 Insurance company needs to charge $100 per month as premium.
By selling a plan of annual deductible of $1,000 Insurance company needs to charge$500 per month as premium.
Say John’s mom sneezes 100 times.
If not there is no pre-existing business agreement between the insurance company and Savantcare then it is out-of-network services.
It is in-network services if following conditions are satisfied:
That is a mystery even to us.
Some suggestions as you try to navigate the complex contract between you and your insurance company:
The charge is $150 for per appointment.
No. 99% of the time, there are no charges prior to the appointment. Exceptions are:
Note: First time patients may see a pre-authorization (will show as pending, not charged) to verify the payment method is valid. This typically drops off within 3-5 business days.
An explanation of benefits (commonly referred to as an EOB form) is a statement sent by a health insurance company to covered individuals explaining what medical treatments and/or services were paid for on their behalf.
Sometimes insurance companies carve out plans to different categories like mental health, etc. It becomes impossible for us to check for every patient’s coverage and hence its important patients are solely responsible to check for coverage with their insurance company.
Here is an incident analysis from several identical cases we have seen:
Patients can check their insurance coverage by logging in to the “my health” portal. Please refer to the screenshot below for a visual understanding:
You can find out what your copay will be for a visit by looking at what your health insurance card says for the copay for a specialist. If the copay is not listed on your card, you can call your insurance company and ask. Usually copays are around $30-$50 per visit.
Blue Shield of California has opted to spin off their Mental Health coverage to a third party called MHSA.
We believe the practice is not fair for patients nor doctors as this means services rendered to Blue Shield Covered California patients are considered “out of network”, despite SavantCare maintaining an “in-network’ contract with Blue Shield.
We have filed a dispute with Blue Shield on the matter. Unfortunately, Blue Shield is firmly stating that they are not ‘responsible’ for Mental Health Coverage for the affected Blue Shield plans.
We urge all affected patients to file a grievance or dispute with Blue Shield on the matter and to encourage Blue Shield to honor their contractual obligations to providers and to patients.
It is not possible for us to call every patient’s insurance to find out if they would be covered. Hence, we request all our Blue Shield of CA patients to make sure they check their coverage before their appointment to avoid confusions.
The patient is responsible for paying the doctor’s hourly out of pocket rate for any time the doctor spends completing paperwork.
A doctor’s hourly rate is $500.
You can download and view invoices for your appointments in the myhealth portal by following the following steps:
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
Administrative assistants manage most phone calls and help desk requests (HDR) with logistical concerns outside of session.
However, if a psychiatrist or therapist needs to make a phone call or reply to a HDR on a patient’s behalf (with a therapist, another doctor, a family member or with the patient themselves), the patient is responsible for paying the psychiatrist or therapist’s hourly out of pocket rate.
