Policies | Home

WELCOME TO LUX PSYCHIATRY

This information will help you understand how we work and allow you to review the information prior to your appointment. Our psychiatric services are provided by Dr. Priscilla Hidalgo. During your appointment, she will review the information again and answer any questions you may have.

Services provided

Dr. Hidalgo offers medication management as well as psychotherapy.
Services are provided to adults ages 18-65 year old.

Services we do not provide

Emotional Support Animal letters
Suboxone treatment
Assessments for ability to return to work, ability to own a firearm or weapon, ability to drive a certain vehicle, etc.
Couples or Family Therapy
Transcraneal Magnetic Stimulations/Electroconvulsive Therapy
Disability evaluations
Forensic evaluations
Court ordered treatment
Certain types of psychotherapy such as EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), DBT (Dialectical Behavioral Therapy).

Your First Appointment

During your first appointment, Dr. Hidalgo will thoroughly review your complaints and background. The appointment will generally last one hour. This appointment may occur in person or via telemedicine.
All new patient evaluations are just a consultation and don't establish a doctor-patient relationship.
During your initial evaluation, Dr. Hidalgo will thoroughly review your reasons for seeking care and background. During this session, you and Dr. Hidalgo will discuss preliminary impressions and treatment options. If you both decide to work together, then you will discuss the structure of your treatment.
If medications are indicated, Dr. Hidalgo will discuss with you the nature of your illness, the reasons for starting medication and the likelihood of improvement with and without medication. Dr. Hidalgo will also explain any reasonable alternative treatments, including the type (s) of medication being recommended, the dosage and frequency of administration, including a discussion of the initial dose and the maintenance dose as well as the dosage range. Dr. Hidalgo will also discuss with you probable side effects known commonly to occur and any side effects likely to occur in particular cases, as determined by your medical and psychiatric history or known medical conditions, and any possible long-term effects which may occur after taking the medication for long periods (usually 3 months) or terminating the medication, the effect of sudden withdrawal of the medication against medical advice. You will also be provided with Consent for Medication treatment if appropriate.
Psychotherapy or talk therapy as some people referred to, can be very helpful. In many instances psychotherapy alone can be sufficient to address your symptoms. Sometimes during therapy sessions, some uncomfortable feelings and sensations may arise, but they are usually short-lived. Oftentimes, patients also require the combination of psychotherapy and medication to address their symptoms.
Further assessments may be required for Dr. Hidalgo to complete the consultation and assessment.
If we cannot meet your needs, we will not accept you as a patient.
In case you do not agree with Dr. Hidalgo’s treatment recommendations and/or decide we are not a good fit for you, our initial appointment fees still will apply even if you decide to not pursue treatment.
If you miss your first appointment, you will be charged the full fee for the appointment.

Your follow-up appointments

If medications are prescribed, Dr. Hidalgo may recommend the patient to return in 2-3 weeks for a follow-up appointment.
The frequency of appointments will vary depending on your needs (ranging from once a week to once every 3 months).
Appointments that are focused on medication management only usually last 25 minutes.
If we determine that therapy should be a part of your treatment and you decide to receive therapy from Dr. Hidalgo, it is best for the patient to attend therapy once every 1-2 weeks. These appointments usually last 50 minutes.

Photography or recording (audio and/or video) is NOT permitted during your appointments (new or follow up).

Medications

Please be aware that one of the purposes of an appointment is to ensure that you have enough medications to last until your next scheduled visit.
In order to continue to receive medication refills, you will need to be seen via tele-psychiatry in order to review progress, side effects, update labs, and make any additional adjustments.
There will be a charge for requests to refill a prescription or order any prescription between appointments. We require that you notify us at least 5 days in advance if you require a refill. This policy is to encourage our patients to keep appointments and to ask for refills or discuss any medication changes during office visits.
Dr. Hidalgo expects to be the only one managing psychotropic medications. On a rare occasion, she may coordinate care with your Primary Care Provider/Physician in order to taper off certain medications such as controlled substances.

Controlled Medications

Federal regulations prohibit Dr. Hidalgo from prescribing controlled substances such as stimulants (like adderall, ritalin, etc.) and/or benzodiazepines (like xanax, klonopin, ativan, etc.) without an in-person evaluation. During COVID-19 Public Health Emergency, these rules were relaxed some. As Public Health Emergency ends (May 2023), we expect these rules to be reinstated.
Controlled substances will not be prescribed if you are using marijuana (cannabis) or other substances or using sedatives like pain medications (suboxone, hydrocodone, oxycodone, morphine, etc.).
Even if you have been prescribed controlled medications before, Dr. Hidalgo will only prescribe them after a rigorous evaluation and if they are indicated.
Controlled substances will not be prescribed earlier than scheduled and prescriptions lost or stolen will not be replaced without a police report.
You may be asked for a random Urine Drug Screen during the course of treatment. This is done to either monitor compliance with medications or monitor the presence of illicit substances.
The Prescription Monitoring Program is checked on every patient. This is to ensure monitoring of controlled substances and to avoid duplicate prescriptions. The Prescription Monitoring Program asks for us to submit your name and date of birth, identifying Dr. Hidalgo as your provider.
If you live in Raleigh, NC and surrounding areas and you are being prescribed a controlled substance, you will be required to meet in the office with Dr. Hidalgo at least once every 3 months.

Insurance

Dr. Hidalgo is not in network with any insurance company. Therefore, we do not receive payment directly from the insurance company. The patient is responsible for payment of services. Our fees range from $300-220 per session. If you are uninsured or do not plan to use your health insurance to pay for your services, you are entitled to a Good Faith Estimate. The Good Faith Estimate provision of the No Surprises Act (Jan 1, 2022) is designed to give consumers predictability in how much they will be charged for the healthcare services they will be receiving, prior to their appointment.
The patient is responsible for submitting information to the insurance company for reimbursement. In addition, Dr. Hidalgo is not responsible for submitting documentation to your health insurance company for prescription medications, laboratory services, or other medical services.
Services are paid for in full by the patient at the beginning of each session via credit card or bank transfer.
Dr. Hidalgo will provide you with an invoice/receipt or “superbill” which you can present to your insurance provider in order to seek reimbursement for psychiatric or psychotherapeutic services rendered.
If you plan to use your insurance benefits, it is in your best interest to check with your insurance provider prior to your first appointment in order to understand the full details of your out-of- network mental health benefits. You may get reimbursed at a lower rate than in-network providers.
Some insurances won’t reimburse you for services received out of network.
These are the most frequently used CPT codes:

Diagnostic evaluation (99205)

Psychiatric Evaluation (90792)

E&M med management (99213/99214/99215)

Psychotherapy (90837/90832)

Add on codes for therapy: 90833/90836/90838

GT or .95 is added to code for Telemedicine services

Keep in mind that you may not seek reimbursement for out of network services from Medicaid and/or Medicare.

Cancellations/ No Shows

A late cancellation is when the scheduled appointment is cancelled less than 24 hour before your appointment. We understand that sometimes unexpected events occur which may cause you to miss your appointment; we encourage you to contact us as soon as possible.
You can cancel and schedule appointments using the Patient Portal.
If you cancel an initial Psychiatric Evaluation appointment less than 24 hours before your appointment or you do not show up to your appointment, you will be charged the full fee for your session ($325).
If you cancel a follow up appointment less than 24 hours before your appointment or you do not show to your appointment, we will assess a No-Show or Cancellation fee (full session fee).

Late arrivals/ Missed appointments

If you are late for your session, you will only be seen for the remainder of the time left in your appointment time slot.You will still be charged for the full amount of the session.
Should you arrive more than 15 minutes late for a standard follow-up session or more than 30 minutes late for an extended follow-up session, it will be considered a missed appointment. You will be asked to reschedule so that an appropriate amount of time and attention may be devoted to your care.
You will still be responsible for payment of the missed session. Your insurance company may not reimburse you for fees related to late cancellation/no-show/missed appointment.

Legal testimony

Legal matters requiring my testimony in court may arise. This, however, can interfere with our patient–doctor relationship and therefore, if you are in need of such services, we recommend that you hire an independent forensic mental health doctor/provider.