Yes, our providers are able to provide a comprehensive assessment and diagnosis of mild to moderate anxiety or depression. If you are diagnosed by one of our providers, we are able to provide ongoing treatment in the form of regular check-ins, medication prescriptions, and therapy with our partner Octave Health, depending on your needs.

Please note that booking and paying for a video appointment with one of our providers does not guarantee that you will be given a "confirmed" diagnosis. Similarly, paying for a video appointment does not guarantee that you will get prescribed a specific medication. If you are looking for a very specific medication, like a benzodiazepine, we encourage you to read through this entire FAQ before booking an appointment, to ensure that our practice is a good fit for you.

Our goal as a primary care practice is to make behavioral healthcare more accessible and integrated with primary care. However, primary care has its limitations and this means that receiving behavioral health treatment through Circle Medical is not for everybody. Please read the following carefully to understand whether Circle Medical may be a good fit for you.

You are a good candidate for receiving a comprehensive behavioral health assessment and/or treatment through Circle Medical if:

- You have previously been on medication for anxiety, depression, and/or ADHD and found that it worked well for you in the past.
- You have not tried medication before but you are ready to work with a provider to find the best treatment plan for you. You understand that there may be mild side effects from medication and you are willing to work through these side effects.
- You believe you may have mild to moderate anxiety, depression, and/or ADHD and would like to receive a comprehensive assessment.

Circle Medical is a primary care practice, which means that we are not able to treat more complex behavioral health cases. Circle is not a good fit for you if:

- You are regularly taking or seeking a prescription for benzodiazepines for other treatment (such as Klonopin or Xanax).
- You are regularly taking or seeking a prescription for opioids for other treatment.
- You have a more complex mental health history that may require psychiatric expertise in order to treat safely (this can include hospitalizations related to mental health and/or having bipolar disorder).
- You have tried taking at least 3 different medications for anxiety/depression before and did not tolerate the side effects of treatment.

To see a list of states, please start booking an appointment. You will be able to select from all of the lists where we are currently practicing.

You must be currently residing in the state of treatment as well as have your primary pharmacy be in that same state in order to be a patient at our practice.

Our providers are primary care providers (MD's/DO's, NP's, and PA's) who have received specialized training for behavioral health treatment. They are trained by psychiatrists to ensure a high standard of care, but they are not psychiatrists themselves.

Although it is a commonly accepted practice for many primary care providers to refer their patients to psychiatrists for anxiety and/or depression diagnosis and treatment, primary care providers are actually also able to diagnose and treat mild to moderate forms of anxiety and depression themselves. If you have mild to moderate anxiety and/or depression, you can benefit from having your care managed by your primary care provider at Circle while getting access to all of the general practitioner services you would find at your normal doctor's office.

More complex cases will require psychiatrists to diagnose. We encourage you to please read through this entire FAQ to make sure our practice is a good fit for your needs before you book a medical appointment with a provider.

You do not need to book your initial appointment with a doctor. You can book your appointment with any provider that we have available. Our providers all work closely together to make sure that we are providing the same excellent standard of care to all patients regardless of which provider you book your appointment with.

The first intake appointment is 30 minutes. Follow-up appointments are 20 minutes each.

For non-therapy appointments:

We contract with most PPO insurance plans. If you are a California Bay Area resident, we also work with a small number of HMO plans.

To verify if we work with your insurance, simply start booking an appointment online. You will be prompted to enter your insurance details and will receive eligibility results instantly as well as an estimate of your appointment cost prior to confirming your appointment.

Some PPO plans that we currently work with are:
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Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Aetna, Blue Shield of California, Cigna, Health Net, Humana, and United Healthcare.

For therapy appointments:

Octave is currently in-network with Anthem Blue Cross and Health Net in California, and Aetna and the United Healthcare UMR plan for Mount Sinai employees in New York. Please note that Octave and Circle have different insurance networks, so you will need to verify your insurance separately with Octave. Having in-network insurance with Circle Medical does not guarantee that your insurance will be in-network with Octave.

Plans that we cannot work with are:

Unfortunately, we are unable to provide care for patients who have Medi-Cal or Medicaid insurance. This is because we are not licensed Medi-Cal or Medicaid providers, so we are not able to provide care, even if these patients choose to pay cash instead of use their insurance. If you have Medi-Cal or Medicaid, please do not book an appointment with us, as we will be unable to provide care even if you do not enter your insurance information.

If you've been diagnosed with anxiety and/or depression before and have your diagnosis paperwork available, you can email it to records@circlemedical.com. Be sure to use the same email address that you used to sign up when booking your appointment.

Note: This step is optional. After your first visit, we will facilitate getting your medical records from your previous provider.

After you are diagnosed, if you are prescribed medications, we will coordinate sending these prescriptions to your preferred pharmacy.

Circle Medical providers are able to prescribe many different medications that can help treat symptoms of Anxiety and Depression, including SSRIs. Common SSRIs include citalopram (Cipramil), dapoxetine (Priligy), escitalopram (Cipralex), fluoxetine (Prozac or Oxactin), fluvoxamine (Faverin), paroxetine (Seroxat), sertraline (Lustral), and vortioxetine (Brintellix).

However, Circle Medical providers will NOT prescribe benzodiazepines, which include alprazolam (Xanax), chlordiazepoxide (Librium), clorazepate (Tranxene), diazepam (Valium), halazepam (Paxipam), lorzepam (Ativan), oxazepam (Serax), prazepam (Centrax), and quazepam (Doral).
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You may have a 2-week follow-up if you are on a new dosage for treatment. Once your treatment has stabilized, you will have monthly follow-up appointments to maintain treatment.

If you have questions at any time, please feel free to chat with your provider and care team via our secure app.

After you fill out the initial questionnaires sent to you, it typically takes one appointment for a diagnosis.