About Us
Welcome to Concierge Psych & Wellness Services. We are currently accepting new patients. Visits are Monday evening and Saturdays by appointment only.
I offer a complementary 15 minute phone consultation to see if our practice is right for you. We are a Direct Pay Practice and we do not accept insurance.
There are many benefits to this model (See below) and it is how we are able to offer a higher level of service. We treat common health issues including depression, anxiety, mood swings, anger & irritability, insomnia, substance use, men's health and primary care. I also offer optional hypnotherapy as part of treatment.
Our rates are $350 for an initial evaluation/assessment (approx. 90 min.) and $150 for follow-up (approx. 30 min.) appointments. This is payable by card or cash. Telehealth is available to established patients. House Calls are an additional $25.
Please call or text 904-922-4678 to set an appointment or schedule a consultation. If you are in need of counseling, in addition to medication management, I work with a gifted group of clinicians that I would gladly refer you too. Our office is located at 2225 A1A South Suite #B5. Saint Augustine, FL 32080. I look forward to speaking with you!
Robert J. Dickinson, APRN, PMHNP-BC
How We Work
You first visit will be an initial face-to-face assessment scheduled for approximately 90 minutes. Visits are conducted in a warm and welcoming environment. Following your initial visit, follow-up appointments will be scheduled about every 2 weeks for the first couple months. Follow-up appointments are scheduled for approximately 30 minutes each. Once you and your provider are satisfied with your well being, maintenance follow-ups will be scheduled every 3 months for medication refills and to assure that you continue to be well. At anytime if you feel you need to see your provider before your scheduled appointment, you are welcome to contact us for the next available appointment.
BENEFITS OF WORKING WITH US
More time with the provider
Insurance companies are continually looking for ways to minimize reimbursement to providers. This means that providers must see more and more people a day just to continue to maintain their current level of income. For the patient this means less and less time spent providing individualized care and rushing everyone through, like some assembly line, so a high volume may be achieved. At Concierge Psych & Wellness Services we believe this leads to poor care and we do not believe his is best practice. A cash-based system allows us to spend more time with you, getting to know you, addressing all your needs, and providing an individualized treatment plan. We are not clock watchers at Concierge Psych & Wellness.
Increased privacy
Insurance companies require providers to submit your records for billing purposes. This means you lose control of who has access to your records and personal data. An insurance company may share this with a third party without your knowledge or may be used to determine costs of your premium at time of renewal or for life insurance. A cash-based system allows for your records to remain in the hands of only you and the provider. Releasing your records to a third party would only occur with your express consent and with your full knowledge that your records are being shared with who and when.
Upfront pricing
Insurance companies may not reimburse the full amount of your care and leave the remaining balance as your responsibility. It is not a transparent system. Each insurance contract with each entity has a different rate, which means you may never really know the true cost of service until you receive a surprise bill in the mail weeks or months later. A cash-based system allows for you to know the full and exact price for care before services are rendered. Pricing at Concierge Psych & Wellness is always transparent, and you will know the total cost of care upfront.
Individualized care plan
In addition to the extra time that can be spent with you due to a cash-based model, insurance companies often try to dictate your care. They employ a “rubber stamp” treatment plan model that may work for 99% of the population but may not work for you. We are all individuals with widely different genes and DNA. What works for everyone else may not work for you. A cash-based model allows for an individual care plan that only you and your provider have decided upon.
Greater flexibility with visit type
How you receive your care is currently in flux. During the pandemic federal laws surrounding how a provider can provide care was loosened and many insurance companies not only allowed telehealth visits, but many subscribers found they had no co-pay with these visits. This made for a very convenient and economical way for patients to receive care. And for the providers, reimbursement remained the same, whether you were seen in office face-to-face or VIA telehealth. However, in May 2023 these loosened laws expire, and insurance companies have already begun to respond. Many have begun to charge the same co-pay as an in-office visit and for providers, many find that the reimbursement rates for telehealth have been reduced. This will result in many providers discontinuing telehealth all together or putting strict limits on it. This of course will decrease access to care and make it harder for many individuals to receive care. A cash-based model does not require we play by the insurance companies rules. For as long as state and federal laws allow, a cash-based model allows you and your provider to choose the visit type that is right for you!
Meet the Team
Robert Dickinson, APRN, PMHNP-BC