No; Dr Chen does not participate with any insurance but does provide a bill that contains all necessary information needed to file for out-of-network reimbursement with your health insurance, if you choose to do so.

You can call your insurance company to ask what your reimbursement may be for an out-of-network provider. Dr Chen typically bills 99214 and 90838 for a 55-minute appointment and 99214 and 90833 for a 25-minute medication check appointment (please note Dr Chen bills according to the complexity and time of the appointment itself, and you may see different codes for your specific appointments). You can call your insurance company with these codes to get an estimate for what your financial liability may be. You may also wish to clarify with your insurance company whether your payment will count towards your deductible and out-of-pocket limit, and whether there are separate rules about in- vs out-of-network providers. It is likely more affordable if you see a provider who is in-network with your health insurance.

If you have Medicare Part B, and wish to see Dr Chen, you must enter into a private contract with her, which is required by Medicare for all providers that have opted out of Medicare which states you will not submit reimbursement claims to Medicare for appointments you have with Dr Chen.

Dr Chen may prescribe stimulants as part of your regular treatment plan, such as for augmentation of depression treatment or ADHD.

Dr Chen will consider prescribing benzodiazepines in limited quantities, generally for indications such as flight phobia or panic attacks.

Dr Chen does not prescribe opioids as she does not believe there is enough evidence to suggest they are helpful—and much evidence to suggest they are harmful—in treatment of psychiatric conditions.

Please note Dr Chen does not prescribe controlled substances outside of an appointment.

It depends on your diagnoses and treatment plan.

If you do therapy with Dr Chen, you will typically meet weekly. For a single specific problem, generally patients feel significant relief and resolution of their problems within 8-12 appointments. Sometimes there are multiple problems, or you discover new problems, and you may need a longer duration of treatment. Dr Chen will also follow up with your medication needs during this time, if relevant.

If you are appropriate for medication management only, Dr Chen would want to see you once every 2 weeks until you have reached the desired effect with your medication. Then typically you will follow up in 1 month, then in 2 months, and then finally every 3 months.

Yes. For best care, Dr Chen prefers to see you for therapy as well as medication
management, if both are part of your treatment plan. However, if you are already seeing
a separate therapist, Dr Chen will support your continued relationship with your
therapist. Dr Chen will need to communicate with them as part of your mental health
team. Please provide Dr Chen the contact information of your therapist, if this applies
to you.

Dr. Chen's ability to recommend medical leave will depend on a variety of factors, including the severity of your psychiatric condition, your commitment to therapy, and your demonstrated progress in treatment.

Medical leave is a serious commitment that implies an intense dedication to treatment and therapy. If you seek medical leave, you must be prepared to engage in regular, weekly sessions with Dr. Chen or a therapist with whom you have already established a relationship during this period.

Typically Dr Chen will approve FMLA one month at a time.

(1) Fees associated with late cancellation or no-show: You can cancel an appointment without charge for any reason as long as you let Dr Chen know at least 48 hours in advance of your intention not to come to an appointment. Otherwise, you will be charged for half the appointment you have scheduled.

However, Dr Chen understands that despite your intentions, you may not be able to make it to an appointment because of illness or an emergency. In such cases, as long as you let Dr Chen know prior to the appointment starting, there is no fee for the first 2 times this occurs in a year.

(2) Fee associated with communications outside of a scheduled appointment: To ensure quality and sustainability of the practice, any communication (emails, texts, phone calls) outside of schedule appointments requiring more than 5 minutes of Dr Chen’s time to address will be billed at $100 per 15-minute increment.

There will typically be no charge for simple requests such as scheduling changes, refill requests for existing medications, or straightforward Yes/No queries.

However, more in-depth communication — such as comprehensive clinical updates,
questions that require detailed clinical judgement, requests for expansive information or education, or extensive correspondences with family members — will be subject to the above charges. Dr Chen will confirm with you before spending time on these communication and charging for her time so you can make a decision about how you want to proceed.

To avoid these additional costs, please schedule an additional appointment with Dr Chen to address your concerns.

*Please keep in mind health insurances will typically reimburse appointments, but may not reimburse late fees or fees associated with communication outside of scheduled appointments.

In psychiatry, patient history is key in establishing the right diagnosis, and in general Dr Chen will accept any previous diagnoses that you have arrived at with your previous providers that make sense to you (ie, she will not insist on a re-examination of previous diagnoses that you are being treated for). Dr Chen will also re-evaluate your diagnoses if you have questions about them.

There are exceptions. Because Dr Chen is committed to a high standard of psychiatric care, if your diagnoses came from sources like telehealth platforms (eg, Cerebral and Done which are currently being federally investigated for dangerous and negligent clinical practices) or providers without adequate psychiatric background, she will always re-evaluate your diagnoses with you.

Within the boundaries of the law, Dr Chen will not answer any inquiries and will not acknowledge any relationship with any patient—past, current, or prospective—unless otherwise directed by her patients.

Dr Chen keeps her patients’ health care information and medical notes in a HIPAA-compliant electronic medical record system.

Additionally, to maintain further privacy and confidentiality, Dr Chen keeps psychotherapy notes where she will put sensitive information not necessary to making medical diagnoses or treatment decisions but helpful to keep track of as part of ongoing therapy. These notes are stored separately, are not part of the medical record, and cannot be subpoenaed or requested by anyone.

Yes. If you are interested in consulting Dr Chen for this type of work, please contact Dr Chen to arrive at a financial agreement—including the hourly rate, and expectations about the type of work you’d like Dr Chen’s help with.