Welcome 

Business Hours: Office hours vary but a typical week is as follows: Monday office staff is in office from 9 am to Noon & 1 pm-4 pm;Tuesday & Thursday office staff is in office from 10 am-12 pm and 1 pm-4 pm; Wednesday office staff is in office from 9 am-Noon and 2 pm-4 pm Friday office staff is in office from 9 am to Noon; The doctor is in office when scheduled. Please see Calendar of Office Hours for detailed office hours.

Phone Hours: Phone hours generally match the office hours. 24 hour answering service is available at all times (you may leave a message for the doctor to be answered by office staff next business day). Medication refills being requested between visits should be requested 3-4 business days before the medication runs out. Please see Calendar of Office Hours for detailed office hours.

Finding Us: click here for a map of our location 

Forms: click here for change of address, phone and insurance forms, as well as forms to request records, letters and changes to people authorized to communicate with our office.

Online Rx Request: click here to request a prescription through our online system.

Join Our E-Mail List: click here to request to be added to our office e-mail list to receive closure reminders and other office notes NOTE: you must be a patient at the private practice or a drug rep to be added to our list. You may request refills and/or leave messages for the doctor via e-mail if you are a patient at the private ptactice, but be aware that e-mail is not the proper way to reach the office with urgent messages or emergencies. If you have an emergency, dial 911 or go to the nearest emergency room. If you have an urgent matter, please call the office and leave a message with me or the answering service. Also be aware that information sent via e-mail is not completely HIPPA protected as e-mails travel from your computer to your ISP’s computer and to our ISP's computer before reaching us. By sending personal information via e-mail, you do risk potential privacy issues.

What We Do

Dr Michael Hernandez is a board-certified Psychiatrist. He sees patients aged 18 to 64 years for a variety of conditions ranging from Depression and Anxiety to Bipolar Disorder and Alcoholism on Monday and Thursday afternoons only. He does prescribe Suboxone for opioid dependence only.

Kenda Dietrich is an LPC providing individual therapy services. She sees patients Monday-Wednesday. Please call for more information and availability.

Our Policies: Click here for our policies. Of note, Dr Hernandez does not prescribe Xanax, Adderall or pain medications.

New Patient Scheduling: When openings are available for new patients, we schedule new patients for the month beginning on the first weekday of the month (i.e. October 1 for October appointments). This allows our existing patients to schedule their follow ups first so that we do not overbook and so that quality time with the doctor is maintained for all patients. As of 4/7/22, we have no openings for new patients under any circumstances. We are not keeping a wait list as we do not expect openings in the near future. We cannot estimate when we will have openings.

Insurances: We are not currently accepting insurance patients.

Announcements

Planned Closures

for

Spring 2022:

· Thurs, March 10 at 4 pm to Mon, March 21 at 9 am—office closed for Spring Break

· Tues Apr 5—office will close at 12 pm

· · Thurs, Apr 14 at 4 pm to Tue, Apr 19 at 10 am —office closed for Easter

· Mon, May 9—office will be closed

· Tues, May 17—office will be closed

· Fri, May 20—office will be closed

· Mon, May 30—office will be closed for Memorial Day

 (We reserve the right to close the office any time patients are not scheduled.)

 3-4 business days (i.e. days that the office is open) are required for refills to make sure you do not run out of medicine.



Our office has been closed to in-person visits since the March 2020 stay at home and will remain so until the COVID pandemic is no longer a threat. We ask that patients only come into the office when directed to do so (i.e. to pick up samples they have requested or medication that has been requested from the manufacturer). We have been conducting all appointments via tele medicine on a smart phone or computer/tablet. I will contact you the week before your appointment to get you set up for the appointment if your appointment falls during this timeframe. Our phones are open during normal hours. It is my understanding that Kenda is doing the same. Just contact the office if you would like a tele health visit and I will get the message to her.

Currently, the Texas State Insurance Board and Centers for Medicaid and Medicaid Services have extended their waiver allowing insurances to pay for tele med visits. Many of you have asked if we will continue to allow tele med visits after the pandemic. We will certainly keep it as an option if the doctor feels it is appropriate in your individual case; we cannot say, however, whether insurance will continue to pay for it. Thus, after we re-open the office to in-person appointment, you would have to be willing to self pay ($75-$175 depending on visit) for any visit your insurance denies due to the appointment not being in person if you choose telemedicine over in-person visits.

As a reminder, it is highly recommended that you contact the office directly with refill requests as many of the local pharmacies end up sending requests to the county clinic in Robstown instead of here to our office. The pharmacy then tells you that we have denied the request or that they are not receiving a response, which is rarely true. You can use any of the above bulleted methods to request a refill directly from the office. If you use email, text or the website form to make a request, you will receive a response indicating the request has been received the next time the office is open to receive the request.

As many of you know, we have changed telemedicine programs. The old program (doxy.me), however, has been randomly texting people, sometimes on the day of their appointment and sometimes not, to invite them to check in for their appointment. Please check any texts you get to see if they are signed by me; if they are not, the text is coming from the old program and should be disregarded. It is important that the link you use is the one in the text/email signed by me as that is the one that will allow you to access the new program (VSee) where the doctor will be looking for you (if after entering your information, it tells you to close the window, you are using the old program link). Those who receive (or have received) one of these texts should search their device (phone or computer) for a Doxy.me app and uninstall it. Uninstalling the app should keep you from receiving any further texts from the old program. Remember, if you are unsure whether you are logged on in the correct place or are having problems, give me a call sooner rather than later; so that at the least he can do a telephone appointment with you.