During the COVID-19 pandemic, all sessions are being conducted remotely, via an encrypted Telehealth platform. For patients on Aetna, these services are being covered by insurance. However, Aetna’s commitment to covering Telehealth visits is subject to change. Please be aware that I will only return to in-person visits when I deem it is safe to do so on the basis of available epidemiological data.
I AgreeEmotional well-being can be difficult to attain. Many things may interfere – anxiety, sleep trouble, sad mood, anger, or poor concentration just to name a few symptoms. Sometimes it is difficult to know what is getting in the way of leading the life that we want for ourselves or for our children. Understanding the obstacles to well-being is an important step in learning how to navigate them successfully. Psychotherapy, medications, or both may be very useful in this process.
I believe that everyone has the capacity to succeed. Psychotherapy can help you find your strengths in order to build on these and reach your goals. Everyone has different needs – it is important to carefully assess each individual’s social, medical, and personal history in order to tailor a treatment plan. It is also important to keep in mind that, because needs and goals may change over time, therapy should be a flexible endeavor, with an open mind towards changes.
Dr Verna is a psychiatrist in Westchester who specializes in child and adolescent psychiatry. He is board certified in adult psychiatry as well as in child and adolescent psychiatry. He has extensive experience managing a wide range of issues and disorders working both in psychotherapy and in medication management.
Dr Verna received a BA from The George Washington University in Washington DC and an MD from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He completed an Internship in Medicine and Residency in Psychiatry and proceeded to a Fellowship in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. He opened a private practice after completing training.
What to Expect.
Children (age 12 and younger):
The initial meeting is between one or more parents and Dr Verna.
During this time detailed history will be gathered and goals of treatment will be explored. The second meeting is with the child alone for 30 minutes, and then with the child and the parents for the remaining 15 minutes. Of course, these are only general guidelines, and your evaluation may differ from this pattern. Parents sometimes choose to involve the child’s pediatrician or school in order to gain a more complete picture of the presenting problems.
It is very important for parents to provide feedback about progress towards goals and to maintain active contact with Dr Verna. Whenever possible, monthly meetings with the parents are very helpful for the child’s treatment.
Adolescents (age 13-18):
Parental consent for treatment is required for adolescents until their 16th birthday. At this age, patients may seek treatment on their own. In most cases, treatment for adolescents follows the same format as for adults (see below). Like for younger children, ongoing contact with parents can be extremely important.
Adults:
During your first visit Dr Verna will work with you to learn about your history, your reasons for seeking care, and your treatment goals. This initial evaluation may consist of one or two 45-minute sessions. After the initial visit or visits, your appointments will last between 30 and 50 minutes depending on the nature of your treatment.
Missed Appointments:
Please contact Dr. Verna at least 48 hours in advance to cancel an appointment. Charges will incur for appointments missed without at least 48-hour notification to Dr. Verna. Patients will be directly responsible for the full regular fee for any missed visits, which is not covered by your insurance carrier. Please keep in mind that missed appointments disrupt your treatment.
Phone Calls:
Please limit your phone calls to timely matters only. For all other matters, please wait until your next appointment to consult with Dr. Verna. Non-emergency calls (appointment rescheduling, etc.) are returned within one to two business days. Whenever Dr. Verna is away from the office for a prolonged period of time, his voicemail greeting will provide contact information for a covering psychiatrist.
In the event of an emergency, DIAL 911 or go to your nearest emergency room.
Telephone sessions:
Phone sessions are discouraged and kept to an absolute minimal frequency. However, when a phone session is necessary, it cannot be billed to the insurance company because these are not covered. Therefore, phone sessions will be billed directly to you at the rate for a regular session as reimbursed by your insurance company. You will therefore be directly responsible for payment in full for any telephone sessions.
Medications and Refills:
It is very important to discuss any medication issues such as side effects with your doctors at once. You do not need to wait for your appointment to address these concerns – feel free to call at any time if you have concerns.
For refill requests, please call Dr. Verna at +1-646-202-2921 with the medication required and the pharmacy name and phone number. If clinically appropriate, the refill will be called in or mailed to you within 72 hours.
Minors: Any child or adolescent requires parental consent before medications can be prescribed. No medication decisions involving a minor’s treatment will be made without the explicit approval of at least one parent. It is essential to inform all your child’s doctors of all medications your child is taking and any health problems he or she may have.
Adults: Please make sure that all of your doctors know about all of your medications and health concerns.
Forms:
Patients may sometime need forms filled out for school, life or disability insurance applications, or other reasons. Filling out forms can be very time consuming and insurance carriers do not reimburse for this time. For this reason, patients are financially responsible for time incurred in filling out such forms, billed at the rate of $200 per hour for any form requiring more than 5 minutes to complete.
Privacy Notice
By accepting services from Dr. Verna, you are agreeing to the
HIPAA NOTICE OF PRIVACY PRACTICES.
NOTICE OF PRIVACY PRACTICES
THIS NOTICE DESCRIBES HOW MEDICAL INFORMATION ABOUT YOU MAY BE USED AND DISCLOSED AND HOW YOU CAN GET ACCESS TO THIS INFORMATION. PLEASE REVIEW IT CAREFULLY.
If you have any questions about this Notice please contact Matias Verna, M.D. Throughout this document the term “we” refers to Dr Verna or a qualified associate such as a covering physician.
This Notice of Privacy Practices describes how we may use and disclose your protected health information to carry out treatment, payment or health care operations and for other purposes that are permitted or required by law. It also describes your rights to access and control your protected health information. “Protected health information” is information about you, including demographic information, that may identify you and that relates to your past, present or future physical or mental health or condition and related health care services.
We are required to abide by the terms of this Notice of Privacy Practices. We may change the terms of our notice, at any time. The new notice will be effective for all protected health information that we maintain at that time. Upon your request, we will provide you with any revised Notice of Privacy Practices. You may request a revised version by accessing our website, or calling the office and requesting that a revised copy be sent to you in the mail or asking for one at the time of your next appointment.
1. USES AND DISCLOSURES OF PROTECTED HEALTH INFORMATION
Your protected health information may be used and disclosed by your physician, our office staff and others outside of our office who are involved in your care and treatment for the purpose of providing health care services to you. Your protected health information may also be used and disclosed to pay your health care bills and to support the operation of your physician’s practice.
Following are examples of the types of uses and disclosures of your protected health information that your physician’s office is permitted to make. These examples are not meant to be exhaustive, but to describe the types of uses and disclosures that may be made by our office.
Treatment: We will use and disclose your protected health information to provide, coordinate, or manage your health care and any related services. This includes the coordination or management of your health care with another provider. For example, we would disclose your protected health information, as necessary, to a home health agency that provides care to you. We will also disclose protected health information to other physicians who may be treating you. For example, your protected health information may be provided to a physician to whom you have been referred to ensure that the physician has the necessary information to diagnose or treat you. In addition, we may disclose your protected health information from time-to-time to another physician or health care provider (e.g., a specialist or laboratory) who, at the request of your physician, becomes involved in your care by providing assistance with your health care diagnosis or treatment to your physician.
Payment: Your protected health information will be used and disclosed, as needed, to obtain payment for your health care services provided by us or by another provider. This may include certain activities that your health insurance plan may undertake before it approves or pays for the health care services we recommend for you such as: making a determination of eligibility or coverage for insurance benefits, reviewing services provided to you for medical necessity, and undertaking utilization review activities. For example, obtaining approval for a hospital stay may require that your relevant protected health information be disclosed to the health plan to obtain approval for the hospital admission.
Health Care Operations: We may use or disclose, as needed, your protected health information in order to support the business activities of your physician’s practice. These activities include, but are not limited to, quality assessment activities, employee review activities, training of medical students, licensing, fundraising activities, and conducting or arranging for other business activities.
We will share your protected health information with third party “business associates” that perform various activities (for example, billing or transcription services) for our practice. Whenever an arrangement between our office and a business associate involves the use or disclosure of your protected health information, we will have a written contract that contains terms that will protect the privacy of your protected health information.
We may use or disclose your protected health information, as necessary, to provide you with information about treatment alternatives or other health-related benefits and services that may be of interest to you. You may contact Matias Verna, M.D. to request that these materials not be sent to you.
Other Permitted and Required Uses and Disclosures That May Be Made Without Your Authorization or Opportunity to Agree or Object.
We may use or disclose your protected health information in the following situations without your authorization or providing you the opportunity to agree or object. These situations include:
Required By Law: We may use or disclose your protected health information to the extent that the use or disclosure is required by law. The use or disclosure will be made in compliance with the law and will be limited to the relevant requirements of the law. You will be notified, if required by law, of any such uses or disclosures.
Public Health: We may disclose your protected health information for public health activities and purposes to a public health authority that is permitted by law to collect or receive the information. For example, a disclosure may be made for the purpose of preventing or controlling disease, injury or disability.
Communicable Diseases: We may disclose your protected health information, if authorized by law, to a person who may have been exposed to a communicable disease or may otherwise be at risk of contracting or spreading the disease or condition.
Health Oversight: We may disclose protected health information to a health oversight agency for activities authorized by law, such as audits, investigations, and inspections. Oversight agencies seeking this information include government agencies that oversee the health care system, government benefit programs, other government regulatory programs and civil rights laws.
Abuse or Neglect: We may disclose your protected health information to a public health authority that is authorized by law to receive reports of child abuse or neglect. In addition, we may disclose your protected health information if we believe that you have been a victim of abuse, neglect or domestic violence to the governmental entity or agency authorized to receive such information. In this case, the disclosure will be made consistent with the requirements of applicable federal and state laws.
Food and Drug Administration: We may disclose your protected health information to a person or company required by the Food and Drug Administration for the purpose of quality, safety, or effectiveness of FDA-regulated products or activities including, to report adverse events, product defects or problems, biologic product deviations, to track products; to enable product recalls; to make repairs or replacements, or to conduct post marketing surveillance, as required.
Legal Proceedings: We may disclose protected health information in the course of any judicial or administrative proceeding, in response to an order of a court or administrative tribunal (to the extent such disclosure is expressly authorized), or in certain conditions in response to a subpoena, discovery request or other lawful process.
Law Enforcement: We may also disclose protected health information, so long as applicable legal requirements are met, for law enforcement purposes. These law enforcement purposes include (1) legal processes and otherwise required by law, (2) limited information requests for identification and location purposes, (3) pertaining to victims of a crime, (4) suspicion that death has occurred as a result of criminal conduct, (5) in the event that a crime occurs on the premises of our practice, and (6) medical emergency (not on our practice’s premises) and it is likely that a crime has occurred.
Coroners, Funeral Directors, and Organ Donation: We may disclose protected health information to a coroner or medical examiner for identification purposes, determining cause of death or for the coroner or medical examiner to perform other duties authorized by law. We may also disclose protected health information to a funeral director, as authorized by law, in order to permit the funeral director to carry out their duties. We may disclose such information in reasonable anticipation of death. Protected health information may be used and disclosed for cadaveric organ, eye or tissue donation purposes.
Research: We may disclose your protected health information to researchers when their research has been approved by an institutional review board that has reviewed the research proposal and established protocols to ensure the privacy of your protected health information.
Criminal Activity: Consistent with applicable federal and state laws, we may disclose your protected health information, if we believe that the use or disclosure is necessary to prevent or lessen a serious and imminent threat to the health or safety of a person or the public. We may also disclose protected health information if it is necessary for law enforcement authorities to identify or apprehend an individual.
Military Activity and National Security: When the appropriate conditions apply, we may use or disclose protected health information of individuals who are Armed Forces personnel (1) for activities deemed necessary by appropriate military command authorities; (2) for the purpose of a determination by the Department of Veterans Affairs of your eligibility for benefits, or (3) to foreign military authority if you are a member of that foreign military services. We may also disclose your protected health information to authorized federal officials for conducting national security and intelligence activities, including for the provision of protective services to the President or others legally authorized.
Workers’ Compensation: We may disclose your protected health information as authorized to comply with workers’ compensation laws and other similar legally-established programs.
Inmates: We may use or disclose your protected health information if you are an inmate of a correctional facility and your physician created or received your protected health information in the course of providing care to you.
Uses and Disclosures of Protected Health Information Based upon Your Written Authorization
Other uses and disclosures of your protected health information will be made only with your written authorization, unless otherwise permitted or required by law as described below. You may revoke this authorization in writing at any time. If you revoke your authorization, we will no longer use or disclose your protected health information for the reasons covered by your written authorization. Please understand that we are unable to take back any disclosures already made with your authorization.
Other Permitted and Required Uses and Disclosures That Require Providing You the Opportunity to Agree or Object
We may use and disclose your protected health information in the following instances. You have the opportunity to agree or object to the use or disclosure of all or part of your protected health information. If you are not present or able to agree or object to the use or disclosure of the protected health information, then your physician may, using professional judgement, determine whether the disclosure is in your best interest.
Facility Directories: Unless you object, we will use and disclose in our facility directory your name, the location at which you are receiving care, your general condition (such as fair or stable), and your religious affiliation. All of this information, except religious affiliation, will be disclosed to people that ask for you by name. Your religious affiliation will be only given to a member of the clergy, such as a priest or rabbi.
Others Involved in Your Health Care or Payment for your Care: Unless you object, we may disclose to a member of your family, a relative, a close friend or any other person you identify, your protected health information that directly relates to that person’s involvement in your health care. If you are unable to agree or object to such a disclosure, we may disclose such information as necessary if we determine that it is in your best interest based on our professional judgment. We may use or disclose protected health information to notify or assist in notifying a family member, personal representative or any other person that is responsible for your care of your location, general condition or death. Finally, we may use or disclose your protected health information to an authorized public or private entity to assist in disaster relief efforts and to coordinate uses and disclosures to family or other individuals involved in your health care.
2. YOUR RIGHTS
Following is a statement of your rights with respect to your protected health information and a brief description of how you may exercise these rights.
You have the right to inspect and copy your protected health information. This means you may inspect and obtain a copy of protected health information about you for so long as we maintain the protected health information. You may obtain your medical record that contains medical and billing records and any other records that your physician and the practice uses for making decisions about you.
As permitted by federal or state law, we may charge you a reasonable copy fee for a copy of your records.
Under federal law, however, you may not inspect or copy the following records: psychotherapy notes; information compiled in reasonable anticipation of, or use in, a civil, criminal, or administrative action or proceeding; and laboratory results that are subject to law that prohibits access to protected health information. Depending on the circumstances, a decision to deny access may be reviewable. In some circumstances, you may have a right to have this decision reviewed. Please contact Matias Verna, M.D. if you have questions about access to your medical record.
You have the right to request a restriction of your protected health information. This means you may ask us not to use or disclose any part of your protected health information for the purposes of treatment, payment or health care operations. You may also request that any part of your protected health information not be disclosed to family members or friends who may be involved in your care or for notification purposes as described in this Notice of Privacy Practices.
Your request must state the specific restriction requested and to whom you want the restriction to apply.
Your physician is not required to agree to a restriction that you may request. If your physician does agree to the requested restriction, we may not use or disclose your protected health information in violation of that restriction unless it is needed to provide emergency treatment.
With this in mind, please discuss any restriction you wish to request with your physician. You may request a restriction by [describe how patient may obtain a restriction.]
You have the right to request to receive confidential communications from us by alternative means or at an alternative location. We will accommodate reasonable requests. We may also condition this accommodation by asking you for information as to how payment will be handled or specification of an alternative address or other method of contact. We will not request an explanation from you as to the basis for the request. Please make this request in writing to Matias Verna, M.D..
You may have the right to have your physician amend your protected health information. This means you may request an amendment of protected health information about you in a designated record set for so long as we maintain this information. In certain cases, we may deny your request for an amendment. If we deny your request for amendment, you have the right to file a statement of disagreement with us and we may prepare a rebuttal to your statement and will provide you with a copy of any such rebuttal. Please contact Matias Verna, M.D. if you have questions about amending your medical record.
You have the right to receive an accounting of certain disclosures we have made, if any, of your protected health information. This right applies to disclosures for purposes other than treatment, payment or health care operations as described in this Notice of Privacy Practices. It excludes disclosures we may have made to you if you authorized us to make the disclosure, for a facility directory, to family members or friends involved in your care, or for notification purposes, for national security or intelligence, to law enforcement (as provided in the privacy rule) or correctional facilities, as part of a limited data set disclosure.
You have the right to receive specific information regarding these disclosures that occur after April 14, 2003. The right to receive this information is subject to certain exceptions, restrictions and limitations.
You have the right to obtain a paper copy of this notice from us, upon request, even if you have agreed to accept this notice electronically.
3.COMPLAINTS
You may complain to us or to the Secretary of Health and Human Services if you believe your privacy rights have been violated by us.
You may file a complaint with us by notifying Matias Verna, M.D. of your complaint. We will not retaliate against you for filing a complaint.
You may contact Matias Verna, M.D. at +1-646-202-2921 for further information about the complaint process.
This notice was published and becomes effective on September 1, 2008
Billing
Dr Verna will provide a bill after each visit. Payment in full is due upon receipt of your bill – electronic (ACH) payments, checks, cash or credit cards (American Express, Master Card, Visa, and Discover) are accepted. Please make checks payable to Matias Verna, M.D.
Any payment arrangements through a third party (with the exceptions of spousal payments and of parent/guardian-minor payments) require a signed, written agreement and a pre-authorized credit card on file. For example, an adult whose parent has agreed to pay will require a written agreement by the parent and a pre-authorized credit card on file.
Delinquent accounts may be assigned to an outside agency for collection. Please talk with Dr. Verna directly if you are having financial hardship so that he can work out a payment plan with you without disrupting your treatment.
Other Insurances (out-of-network)
Your insurance company may require pre-certification for medical services provided by non-participating providers. It is your obligation to obtain and renew the authorization of services. Pre-certification means that you must notify in advance your insurance company of medical services provided by non-participating providers. This is generally required by most policies. Your insurance card may indicate the pre-certification telephone number; otherwise you should call the toll-free number for Customer Service. Please refer to your plan documents for your pre-certification requirements. Please follow the pre-certification procedure in order to maximize your benefits. Failure to do so may result in denial of benefits. Coverage determinations and payments of claims are subject to all the eligibility, coverage, exclusions, and limitations listed in your insurance contract. We strongly encourage to verify your out-of-network benefits prior to your initial consultation.
