Frequently Asked Questions
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We are a private, solo medical practice that offers medical care in the specialties of neurology and psychiatry. Please see the list of illnesses we treat on the Home page of this site, as well as the Services page. The services that we offer depend on the unique challenges each person is facing. All new patients start with a consultation appointment which allows Dr. Maloy to make a diagnostic formulation and identify the potential areas of treatment.
Our area of specialization within neurology involves two areas: cognitive disorders and behavioral neurologic disorders. Cognitive disorders are brain diseases that affect your thinking, such as all of the disorders that produce dementia. Behavioral neurologic disorders are neurologic disorders that include psychiatric symptoms. Examples include autism, psychosis due to Parkinson’s disease, ADHD, agitation caused by Alzheimer’s disease. It is common for neurologic illnesses to cause neuropsychiatric symptoms, and often neurology patients do not have these issues adequately treated. We do not treat general neurologic disorders, such as back pain, seizures, or essential tremor.
We also provide the full range of psychiatric services including medication and various forms of therapy, including supportive psychotherapy, motivational interviewing, insight-oriented psychodynamic psychotherapy, and polyvagal-informed trauma therapy. We have many patients who also have a therapist outside of the practice. Of note, our approach is more comprehensive and may not be right for patients who are stable on medications and need only medication refills, as we do not offer medication management as a stand alone service.
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In order to be seen at Brain Health Maine, you do not need a referral from your PCP.
There are two reasons that you may still want your PCP to send us a referral: 1) they include medical records that are useful for us for your consultation, and 2) your insurance carrier may require your PCP to make a referral if you have an HMO plan and try obtain a network exemption. (We have a Health Insurance Benefits Worksheet that can help you discuss coverage options with your insurance carrier. You can find this worksheet in the Patient Resources section of this website.)
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No. We are not in-network for any insurance plan and we do not submit billing to insurance companies for payment. We are in the ‘opted-out’ status with Medicare.
Some patients may still be able to receive reimbursement of a portion of the cost of care. We email a worksheet - called the Health Insurance Benefits Worksheet - to people when they request practice information and it is available in the patient portal for current patients. You do not need to fill this worksheet out for us; it is just for your convenience if you are calling your insurance company to discuss your coverage.
We recommend that you gather your coverage information before scheduling a consultation if reimbursement from insurance is a priority, as doing so after you receive services may be less likely to be approved.
A Statement for Insurance Reimbursement is emailed by my electronic medical system SimplePractice on the first day of each month for patients who want documentation to submit to insurance companies. If you are seeking reimbursement from your insurance company, this statement for insurance reimbursement is what needs to be submitted. They will not accept the itemized paid invoice that is emailed when your card is charged.
I translate hourly charges into current procedural terminology (“CPT”) codes as a courtesy for patients seeking reimbursement from insurance companies because that is what insurers require. Thus, even though your Statement for Insurance Reimbursement will show dollar amounts next to CPTcodes, that is not how I charge. Your charges are determined by the duration of time we spent working together, not by what we did in that time. (I do not charge different amounts for reviewing labs, engaging in psychotherapy, or conducting a neurologic exam. For me, it is all the same activity: patient care.) If you have any questions, please ask.
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You can connect with us through our contact form on this website, call the office at 207-222-3021, or email support@brainhealthmaine.com. We will find out more about your reasons for seeking help and answer your questions.
Often before a patient is offered a consultation appointment with Dr. Maloy, she will schedule a brief phone call to assess whether she believes she can be useful to you.
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Our first appointment together lasts about two hours. The total consultation process takes about six hours, as Dr. Maloy has about four hours of work based on your time together that she completes after you meet, including reviewing records if she has them, ordering labs or any other workup she thinks is indicated, and writing the consultation report.
Follow-up appointments are 45-60 minutes long, with 15-30 minutes of additional time for the doctor to complete the appointment work. This time is included in the total duration of the appointment for the purposes of billing. See the Services section for more information.
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No. Typically we only treat adults. There are rare instances where a child will be seen if we believe we are the best local resource for the child. However, in general, we believe that children should be seen by pediatric neurology and/or child and adolescent psychiatry, depending on the child’s clinical needs.
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We provide the full range of psychiatric services that does include medication management, but we believe optimum psychiatric care consists of so much more than medication management and, therefore, do not offer medication management as a stand alone service.
Our approach is more comprehensive and thus may not be right for patients who are stable on medications and need only medication refills, as we do not offer medication management as a stand alone service.
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Because we speak with patients in detail before scheduling a consultation, it is unusual for us to believe we are not able to provide ongoing treatment. If such an event occurs, part of the benefit of the consultation is that we will be able to make specific recommendations about treatments will be most effective. You can then use those recommendations to inform your next steps in getting the treatments that will help you the most.
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Yes. Dr. Maloy prefers to conduct the consultation appointment in person, but follow-up appointments can be done by telemedicine.
The clinical gained during a telemedicine appointment can be different from an in-person appointment. Sometimes this can be clinically problematic. In such situations, Dr. Maloy may request an in-person visit and/or decline to offer a telemedicine visit due to clinical concerns.