HARVEY H. SHAPIRO, M. D.
A FULL RANGE OF PSYCHIATRIC OUT-PATIENT CARE FOR ALL AGES
239 676 1947
ABOVE: DETAIL FROM "STARRY NIGHT," PERHAPS THE MOST FAMOUS MODERN PAINING, BY VINCENT VAN GOGH, WHO SUFFERED FROM BIPOLAR DISORDER. "STARRY NIGHT" SEEMS TO REFLECT MANIC ENERGY
I'm Harvey Shapiro, M. D., and I've been helping people with mental health problems for over 35 years. There is little in psychiatry that I have not seen and treated. Forgive me if I sound boastful in saying that there are very few cases that I cannot help. Before I list the kinds of problems and diagnoses I treat, let me try to give you an idea of what I am like as a physician by paraphrasing what many, many patients have said to me:
"Doctor, you actually listened to me. You actually took the necessary time. You ‘got’ my situation correctly, and you helped me.”
Among the conditions I help my patients overcome are major depression, bipolarity, panic disorder, OCD, generalized anxiety disorder, social phobia, AD(H)D, eating disorders, migraine, dysthymia, excoriation disorder, trichotillomania, body dysmorphic disorder, separation anxiety disorder of childhood, PTSD and dissociative disorders, schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders, dementing processes, autism spectrum difficulties, sleep problems, and addiction (I offer Suboxone and Vivitrol). I always search for medical illness trying to disguise itself as psychiatric difficulty.
My practice evaluates and treats adults, children (to age 4), adolescents, elderly, couples, and families. Although I am a general psychiatrist, a third or more of my work has always been with children and adolescents.
People not being bags of chemicals, I provide psychotherapy to any that want and need it. In general, outcomes are best when the same person provides both medication and therapy.
In addition to experience with the modern medications, I have also extensively used the first generation agents, which at times have virtues of their own (besides being beloved of insurance drug plans).
In the last 20 years, the insurance industry has forced psychiatric practice to change from caring to corporate. It has forced psychiatrists to be exclusively "pill pushers." That is not what most people want. They want their own doctor who knows them and cares both for and about them. That's the way it used to be, and that's the way it is and will always be in my office.
That brings us to the issue to payment. As you may know, very few psychiatrists take insurance. The reason is that just as insurance companies mistreat you in order to make more money, so they mistreat doctors for the same reason. They fight paying, and if they have to pay, they pay as little as they can. They use an overwhelming burden of required phone calls and paperwork to bend the doctor to their will.
Thus it is true that I do not take insurance, BUT here are reasons that my method may be better than insurance. First, I give each patient a "superbill," a paper that allows the patient to recover some of the cost from the insurance company. It is not as much as it would be if I participated with the insurance company, but it is a meaningful amount, usually fully a third of the charge. Second, my rates are very low, less than half the going rate: one hour $150; half hour $80; quarter hour $45. My charge for a short appointment is LESS than most insurance copays. Third, if the need is principally medicine alone, the ongoing cost would be $45 every 3 to six months, or as little as $90 a year.
What makes the alternative I offer advantageous? First, the patient has her or his own doctor who can be reached at any time. Second, one doctor provides both the therapy (if needed) and prescribes and adjusts the medicine, rather than forcing the patient to be shuttled back and forth between two "providers". Third, because my practice is new, there are immediate openings, no 3 month wait. And fourth, as we all know, there is no real privacy of psychiatric information, the most sensitive type of personal information, with insurance companies. With me, there is.
Please consider granting me the opportunity to be of help to you, your loved one, or your friend.
(note: This is the first web site I ever set up. Well, I guess that's pretty obvious. I set it up; I didn't "build" it because "build" is a pretty arrogant term, especially for this website! "An ill-favored thing, sir, but mine own," as Shakespeare says. At least it's authentic, as I too try to be in my work and life.
ABOVE: ONE OF VINCENT VAN GOGH'S SELF-PORTRAITS, MOST OF WHICH HAVE A DEPRESSED TONE.
WHAT A TRAGEDY IT IS, BOTH FOR THESE TWO REMARKABLE MEN AND FOR ALL OF US, THAT THEY LIVED BEFORE THE UNDERSTANDING AND TREATMENT WE HAVE NOW.
BELOW: ABRAHAM LINCOLN, WHO IS THOUGHT TO HAVE COMPOSED THESE LINES: "Hell? What is hell to one like me / Who pleasures never knew; / By friends consigned to misery; / By hope deserted too?"
