Thank you for your interest in establishing an initial appointment with Dr. Kostalnick at CNS Medical Group, APMC.
New patients are encouraged to contact the office by emailing the office directly at the following email address:
You may also fill out the form at the end of this page. Please also leave a voicemail message on the main office number with your email address if you do not receive an email response with the new patient packet within 24 hours.
The office number is 925-784-4000.
New patient appointments are scheduled on a rolling basis: As soon as we receive your completed intake packet, you will be put into queue for scheduling the first appointment. The wait time for your first appointment varies based on several factors and you will receive an email shortly after your intake packet is received letting you know the status of your new patient appointment. Please feel free to send a message via the website or by email to check on the status of scheduling.
Frequently, we are asked about insurance coverage:
We are a small and personalized fee-for-service practice and do not directly accept insurance for several reasons. For example, when you use your health insurance directly, your doctor must justify your visits to the insurance company which involves providing your mental health diagnosis and sensitive personal information to the insurance company for their review and approval. Your information may then go into your insurance company files for further examination if you choose to change insurance companies at a later time. Although some people are comfortable with their insurance company determining the level of care they deserve--and the amount of time allowed for a physician to diagnose and treat their difficulty--most people would prefer that decision be left to the individual and their doctor and not to an insurance company administrator.
In more recent times, skilled and experienced physicians are choosing to NOT participate directly with insurance companies--both in psychiatry and other medical specialities. This trend has continued with non-physician therapists, as well.
If you would like to submit your own claim for reimbursement, however, the situation is somewhat different than if we accept your insurance directly: At the appointment, we will provide for you a receipt for your PPO insurance carrier with only the minimum amount of information that is required for reimbursement. This limits the amount of personal disclosure to the insurance company to some degree and they will not have to review your case for approval (which would generally require more detailed information to be disclosed to them in order to determine if they will approve what you and your doctor have decided is in your best interest.) We will explain how to submit a claim to your insurance company, if you choose. When submitting a claim to the insurance company, the reimbursement is based on each individual's policy. Most of our patients who choose to submit their claim directly to the insurance company receive some form of reimbursement once their deductible requirement is met.
All appointments are paid by the patient at the time of service by check, credit card, or Health Savings Account (HSA) or Medical Savings Account (MSA). Typically, the only out-of-pocket fee is the appointment fee and other aspects of your care (such as lab tests or medications) are obtained and paid by using your insurance directly as you would for other physicians who are in the insurance company's network.
CRISIS SUPPORT SERVICES OF ALAMEDA COUNTY:
24 HOUR CRISIS LINE: 1-800-309-2131
NATIONAL SUICIDE PREVENTION LIFELINE: 988
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