The cost of working with a psychiatrist will depend on where you live, your insurance, and your treatment requirements. In addition to an appointment fee, you may also need to pay for specific types of treatments, tests, and/or lab work. The average psychiatrist’s fee generally falls somewhere between $100 and $300 per appointment. You should expect to pay up to $500 for the initial consultation and roughly $100 an hour thereafter for follow-ups. This is the out-of-pocket fee, without insurance.
In my experience, and with the opinion of several therapists I have conferred, patients generally get much better treatment with private pay/ no insurance psychiatrists. The one we used charge $175/ session and appointments were once a month unless otherwise necessary. The DR. was much more on top of it and gave much better attention and care to patient. We have dealt with several insurance paid psychiatrists who have been very much detached and not giving as good a care.
It’s becoming more common, due to the insane paperwork and invasive and discriminatory aspects of insurance companies. My current psychiatrist only accepts one insurance company with everything else being cash-only. My previous psychiatrist was exclusively cash-only as well. Both would give you “super-bills” on request so you could file your own “out-of-network” claims.
In over 30 years of psychiatric and psychological care, I’ve only had insurance pay for one doctor other than my current one, and even that one started kicking back claims. I had one employer that was self-insured, and I was loath to file claims lest my diagnosis leak and jeopardize my employment. This was before HIPAA and ADA were passed. I’ve generally either took medical exemptions on my taxes, or used HSA and FSA funds with pretax money. I’ve also had psychologists discount their fees substantially if I bypassed insurance companies.