Bellflower, California
Psychiatric Care for Bellflower
Eight and a half miles down the 91 — psychiatric evaluation and medication management for Bellflower, with a straight answer about coverage first.
In short
Psychiatric care for Bellflower
Bellflower is about eight and a half miles from our psychiatric office, reached along the 91 and then straight down Long Beach Boulevard. We contract with commercial insurance and take self-pay with a sliding scale, but not Medi-Cal managed care, which covers close to a quarter of working-age Bellflower. Video visits are available statewide.
- Our office
- 3646 Long Beach Blvd # 205, Long Beach, CA 90807
- Hours
- Mon–Fri · 8 AM–6 PM (Pacific)
- Phone
- (818) 286-3862
Telehealth available across California, with new locations coming to Northern California.
What we do
Psychiatric care for Bellflower patients
We are a psychiatric practice, not a therapy group and not a clinic directory. That means diagnosis, medication, and someone who keeps track of how you are actually doing over time.
Psychiatry Services
Comprehensive psychiatric care — diagnosis, treatment planning, and ongoing management led by a board-certified provider.
Medication Management
Careful prescribing, monitoring, and adjustment of psychiatric medications to maximize benefit and minimize side effects.
Psychiatric Evaluation
A thorough first assessment to understand your history and symptoms and build an accurate diagnosis and plan.
What a first visit looks like
A full psychiatric evaluation runs about an hour. We go through what brought you in, your history, what you have tried before and how it went, physical health and medications, and what you want to be different. You leave with a working diagnosis where one is clear, a plan, and a follow-up booked — not a referral to somewhere else.
Follow-ups are shorter, usually every few weeks at first and further apart once things are steady. Medication changes are made deliberately, one at a time, so it stays possible to tell what is working.
In person or by video, from Bellflower
Both are real options and the clinical care is the same. Video visits are secure and available anywhere in California, which for most people makes the first appointment in person and the routine follow-ups from home or on a work break.
If getting here is the thing standing between you and treatment, take the video visit rather than skipping the care. That is what it is for.
Care is provided by our psychiatric team — Irine Achuamang, MSN, PMHNP-BC and Austina Cho, MD.
Paying for care
The Medi-Cal answer, first
Usually, yes. We are in network with 19 commercial carriers, including Aetna, Anthem, Beacon Health Options, Carelon, Cigna and others — you can check your own plan below before booking anything. That list includes TRICARE and TriWest, so service members, veterans and military families are billed like anyone else here.
We do not currently take Medi-Cal managed care. If that is your coverage, we are a self-pay option rather than a covered visit, and it is better to know that now than at the front desk. Self-pay is $250 for a 60-minute initial psychiatric evaluation and $150 for a 30-minute follow-up visit, and there is a sliding scale — please ask.
What that looks like in Bellflower
Local coverage data, so you can see roughly where you fall before you call:
- Among Bellflower adults aged 19 to 64, 48.5 percent hold employer-based coverage only and 5.4 percent buy their own plan, putting 53.9 percent on commercial insurance, well below Lakewood to the south and Cerritos to the east. source
- In the same age band 23.4 percent of Bellflower residents rely on Medi-Cal or another means-tested public program and 12.0 percent have no coverage at all — roughly one working-age resident in three. source
- Bellflower has a population of 76,819 and a median household income of $78,722, well below the neighbouring cities to its south and west. source
- For comparison, median household income is $119,177 in Lakewood and $108,703 in Carson — employer-sponsored coverage tracks payroll, which is why Bellflower's commercial share sits lower than either. source
In-network with your insurance
We're in-network with most major plans, so care stays affordable. Not sure about yours? Verify your coverage in about a minute — or we'll gladly check it for you.
No card to hand? Just leave your name and number — tick “look it up for me” and we'll do the checking. Self-pay & sliding-scale options are also available.
Plans we accept
Paying out of pocket?
Self-pay ratesClear, upfront self-pay rates — no surprises, no fine print. You’ll know the cost before your first visit.
Initial psychiatric evaluation
$250/ 1 hour
Follow-up visit
$150/ 30 min
Sliding-scale options are available — just ask.
About visiting us from Bellflower
Before anything else, the part that decides whether the rest of this page is any use to you. We contract with commercial insurance. We do not contract with any Medi-Cal managed-care plan. In Bellflower, 23.4 percent of working-age adults are covered by Medi-Cal or a similar means-tested program and another 12 percent have no coverage at all — roughly one resident in three for whom we are not a covered visit. That is a large share, and burying it under three paragraphs about freeway exits would be a way of hoping you did not notice.
If you are in that third, here is what we can actually offer: self-pay with a sliding scale, which you are welcome to ask about before booking anything, and an honest answer about whether we are the right value for your money. The county help line on (800) 854-7771 can also point toward lower-cost options we cannot match, and there is no awkwardness in taking that route instead.
For the 53.9 percent on commercial coverage, the rest of this is straightforward. What we provide is psychiatric: a full evaluation, a diagnosis where the picture supports one, medication chosen and then actually monitored, and follow-up that changes course when something is not working. The conditions we see most are depression, anxiety and panic, PTSD and the long tail of untreated trauma, and the sleep problems that sit underneath a great deal of it.
None of the coverage picture is a judgement about Bellflower. The median household here is $78,722 against $119,177 in Lakewood a few miles north, and employer coverage follows payroll far more than it follows postcode. A city of seventy-seven thousand where fewer than half the working-age adults get insurance through a job is describing its labour market, not its residents. What it means for us is narrow and specific: the gap between what we can bill and what this city carries is wide, so we say it first rather than last.
The drive is the 91, and the numbers reward knowing that in advance. From City Hall it is about eight and a half miles: west on the 91, then down North Long Beach Boulevard almost to our door. Swapping onto the 710 costs you extra distance for the same time, and going round by the 605 and the 405 is nearly double the mileage to arrive later. Bellflower is one of those places where the map offers three plausible routes and only one is sensible. The city has painted murals on the 91 underpass, the same freeway nearly every Bellflower patient arrives on, which is a small thing to look out for on a drive you have been putting off. Buses are named for you — Long Beach Transit’s 91 through 94 work the Bellflower Boulevard and Alondra corridors down to 7th Street — but there is no rail, so realistically the choice is the drive or a video visit.
If cost is what has stopped you until now, say so when you call rather than not calling. That conversation is quicker and less uncomfortable than people expect. In crisis, 988 answers by call or text at any hour.
Getting here
Travelling from Bellflower
Distances and times below are Google's, timed on a weekday at the hour each route note states, in the traffic it labels usual for that route. Allow longer at the peaks each note says were not sampled.
By car
From Bellflower City Hall the office is 8.6 miles and about 18 minutes, west on the 91 and then down North Long Beach Boulevard. Timed on a weekday evening. Morning and afternoon peaks were not sampled.
google.comchecked
Swapping to the 710 adds distance for the same time — 10.2 miles and 19 minutes — and the 605-to-405 route is 15.1 miles, nearly double, for 20 minutes. Timed on a weekday evening. Morning and afternoon peaks were not sampled.
google.comchecked
By transit
Long Beach Transit Routes 91, 92, 93 and 94 are the Bellflower group, working the Bellflower Boulevard and Alondra corridors down to 7th Street in Long Beach.
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No Metro rail station lies within Bellflower; the nearest A Line platforms are along Long Beach Boulevard to the south-west.
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Local
Other resources in Bellflower
These are listed because they are useful. We have no referral arrangement with any of them.
Bellflower is served by the Los Angeles County health and mental health systems rather than by a city department of its own.
dmh.lacounty.govchecked
The county's mental health help line answers at (800) 854-7771 every hour of every day and can arrange service referrals or a crisis assessment.
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Dialing or texting 988 connects to the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline nationwide.
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Related
Where to read more before you call
Frequently asked questions
Do you take Medi-Cal?
No, and in Bellflower that answer matters more than it does on most of our pages. We contract with 19 commercial carriers and none of them is a Medi-Cal managed-care plan. Close to a quarter of working-age Bellflower residents are on Medi-Cal, so for many people reading this we are a self-pay practice with a sliding scale rather than a covered visit.
What if I have no insurance at all?
Ask about the sliding scale before you rule us out. Twelve percent of working-age Bellflower residents are uninsured, roughly one in eight, so this is a common question here rather than an awkward one. The county help line on (800) 854-7771 can also point toward lower-cost options.
Which way should I drive?
The 91 west, then straight down North Long Beach Boulevard: 8.6 miles, about 18 minutes. The 710 version is 10.2 miles for the same time, and going around by the 605 and 405 is 15.1 miles — nearly double the distance to save nothing.
What does the sliding scale actually mean?
Self-pay is $250 for a 60-minute initial evaluation and $150 for a 30-minute follow-up, and the sliding scale moves those figures for people who cannot meet them. Ask when you call, before booking anything. In a city where roughly one working-age resident in three is on Medi- Cal or uninsured, it is an ordinary question rather than an awkward one.
Will you tell me if you are not the right fit?
Yes, and here that matters more than on most of our pages. If your coverage is Medi-Cal, or if what you actually need is therapy rather than medication, saying so at the evaluation is more use to you than treating around it. The county help line on (800) 854-7771 reaches lower-cost options we cannot match.
Does a video visit cost the same?
Self-pay rates are set by the length and type of appointment rather than by whether you are in the room or on a screen, and the sliding scale applies either way. What video removes is the drive, not the fee. If cost is the thing standing in the way, that is the conversation to have on the phone before booking.
Ask about cost before you rule us out
Request a time online, or call and ask about the sliding scale first. A real person confirms every appointment.