Two Beckley clinics now offer TMS therapy for depression, but Medicaid doesn’t cover it
BECKLEY, WV (WVNS) — Dr. Hassan Jafary, a psychiatrist and owner of Beckley Psychiatric Services in Beckley, said he hopes Medicaid insurance in West Virginia will extend to cover a promising treatment for depression.
Dr. Jafary said the treatment, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation therapy (TMS), is not new but that it is new to southern West Virginia, with Beckley Psychiatric Services and Farhat Medical Clinic of Beckley using it to treat patients.
Patients sit in a chair, called the NeuroStar, as the technology pinpoints depression in the patient’s brain and delivers magnetic impulses.
The treatment has shown to improve symptoms in more than 80% of patients treated, he said, and more than 60% of TMS patients are in remission from depression within a year of completing therapy.
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He said TMS is for patients who have tried medicine and counseling but still continue to suffer with depression.
“If you try three to four medications, the chance of getting better with medication is only 10 percent,” Dr. Jafary explained. “So this machine is for those people who try two medications and counseling, and it did not work.”
Patients sit in the chair and listen to music or watch TV for 20-minute sessions.
Sarah Bourgord, a TMS technician at Beckley Psychiatric Services, said patients have experienced extremely positive results since starting TMS.
“I have a patient that said, last week, she was able to do social activities, whenever she hadn’t wanted to go out,” said Bourgord. “She was real excited about that, and she said she feels like she how she did whenever she was a child.”
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TMS is also useful for treating obsessive-compulsive disorder, said Dr. Jafary.
The research policy group KFF published data which shows West Virginia has a high rate of depression and anxiety, when compared to other states.
The state is also one of the poorest in the country.
Dr. Jafary estimated that half of his patients rely on Medicaid to cover mental health treatment.
He pointed out that, while TMS costs nearly $8,000 for a complete round of therapy, medication for depression is also expensive, and many patients require multiple prescriptions for treatment.
He said he’s hopeful officials at West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) will change policy to allow Medicaid patients to receive TMS therapy.
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“We have a lot of Medicaid patients, and they will get great help if DHHR considers giving a chance to this treatment,” he said. “A lot of other insurances are doing it, even Medicare.”
Dr. Jafary said he is in the process of developing a youtube channel to educate the public on mental illness and treatments available.
West Virginia has a lower number of mental health care providers, when compared with other states.
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