Telehealth Suboxone · By Video
Statewide · Mississippi
Online Suboxone treatment, anywhere in Mississippi.
Life Balance offers online Suboxone treatment for patients across Mississippi via secure video visits. Our licensed provider evaluates, prescribes, and manages your care remotely — with prescriptions sent directly to your local pharmacy. Same provider, same continuity, no waiting room. Casey Hester, PMHNP-BC, sees telehealth patients statewide.
If you live in Greenville, in Hattiesburg, in Corinth, in Natchez, in Cleveland — the nearest in-person Suboxone clinic might be ninety minutes one way. Add work, add kids, add a car that doesn't always start. Add the gas. Add the day off.
Telehealth Suboxone exists because the federal rules changed. After 2020, the DEA waived the in-person evaluation requirement for buprenorphine. As of 2024, that flexibility was made permanent for ongoing care, with a one-time in-person visit waived in most cases. The medicine is the same. The provider is the same. The relationship is the same.
What changes is the drive. That is not a small thing. For most of our telehealth patients, the drive was the reason they hadn't started.
One — where we can see you
Anywhere with a Mississippi address.
Casey is licensed across the state of Mississippi. That means telehealth Suboxone is available wherever you are physically located in MS at the time of the visit — your home, your truck on lunch break, your parents' kitchen. The licensure tracks your location, not ours.
We see telehealth patients in the Delta — Greenville, Cleveland, Clarksdale, Indianola, Greenwood. The Pine Belt — Hattiesburg, Laurel, Petal. The Coast — Gulfport, Biloxi, Pascagoula, Bay St. Louis. The river towns — Natchez, Vicksburg, McComb. Central Mississippi — Jackson, Brandon, Madison, Clinton, Pearl. Northeast — Corinth, Tupelo, Columbus, Starkville. And every small town in between.
If you're in Lafayette, Panola, Marshall, Union, Tate, Pontotoc, Calhoun, Yalobusha, or Lee County and would prefer to come see us in person, we're at 405 Galleria Drive in Oxford. Some patients do a hybrid — first visit in the office, follow-ups by video.
Two — how a telehealth induction actually works
The first day, by video.
Telehealth induction is a real protocol — the same Clinical Opiate Withdrawal Scale, the same dosing logic, the same check-ins as an in-office visit. The difference is that you stay home.
The intake call.
Kim takes your information by phone — insurance, ID, pharmacy, brief history. We send you a link for the secure video platform and a few intake forms to fill out. Most patients are scheduled for a real appointment within a week.
The morning of induction.
Don't take your usual. You need to be in real withdrawal — the COWS scale takes about two minutes and Casey walks through it with you on camera. Sweating, restlessness, runny nose, yawning, tremor, goosebumps. Score of twelve or more means we go.
The prescription, sent electronically.
Casey sends the buprenorphine/naloxone script to your local pharmacy in real time. CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, the small independent pharmacies — every Mississippi pharmacy is set up for it. Most patients have the medicine in hand within ninety minutes.
The first dose, on camera.
Two to four milligrams under the tongue. Casey stays on the call. Effects start in thirty to sixty minutes — sweating drops, the cold panic of withdrawal turns off, you stop being dope sick. If you're not meaningfully better at the one-hour mark, we dose again.
The follow-ups.
Day three. Day seven. Then weekly for the first month. Then biweekly. Then monthly. All by video. We adjust the dose, talk through what's working, problem-solve what isn't. If at any point you want to come in person, the door is open.
Three — what you need on your end
It's less than people think.
We have patients on telehealth using a flip phone for the audio and a tablet for the video. The list is short.
- — A phone, tablet, or computer with a working camera and microphone.
- — A Mississippi address — yours, family's, a sober living, anywhere we can reach you.
- — A pharmacy nearby. Any chain. Any town.
- — Twenty minutes of relative privacy for each appointment.
- — Photo ID and insurance card, if you have one. Photographed and uploaded.
No medical equipment. No special app. No good Wi-Fi required for most appointments — cellular is fine.
Four — what it costs by video
Insurance treats telehealth like a regular visit.
Mississippi has parity laws — by statute, your insurance has to cover a video visit at the same rate they cover an in-person visit. That's not a loophole; it's the rule.
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Mississippi covers telehealth Suboxone visits at your standard specialist copay. We're in network.
Mississippi Medicaid and Magnolia Health cover telehealth substance use visits. Generic buprenorphine/naloxone is on every formulary.
Self-pay, Kim quotes the visit fee on your first call. Generic medication at most pharmacies runs roughly thirty to eighty dollars a month depending on dose. GoodRx and SingleCare can drop it further.
We do not bill for missed video visits the same way some clinics do. Life happens. Reschedule.
Five — privacy on a video call
The video is HIPAA-encrypted. The records are stricter.
We use a HIPAA-compliant telehealth platform — end-to-end encrypted, no recording stored, BAA in place. The video itself is not saved.
Your record is protected by 42 CFR Part 2 — a federal confidentiality rule for substance use treatment that is stricter than standard HIPAA. Employers, family members, and law enforcement cannot access your records without your written consent. Period. Not even by subpoena in most cases.
If you live with people you don't want hearing the visit, AirPods work. If you need to do the appointment from your truck on lunch break, plenty of patients do exactly that.
Six — which is right for you
Telehealth or in-person?
Both work. Both are real medicine. The right choice usually has more to do with your life than your medicine.
Telehealth
Video visits, anywhere in Mississippi
Best when distance, work hours, or transportation is a real barrier. No drive, no waiting room, no day off. Same dose adjustments and follow-ups as in-person.
The tradeoff: you need a quiet twenty minutes and a working camera. If your living situation doesn't allow privacy, in-person may be easier.
In-person at our Oxford office
405 Galleria Drive, Suite E
Best for the first visit if you're nearby and for patients who want the room to feel real. Some people just sit differently in a chair than on a screen.
Many patients do a hybrid — first visit in the office, follow-ups by video.
For a deeper walk through the medicine itself — what Suboxone does, the induction protocol, and side effects — start here.
The full Suboxone treatment guideTelehealth Suboxone questions
What people ask before their first video visit
- Yes. The DEA permanently extended telehealth flexibility for buprenorphine prescribing in 2024, allowing licensed providers to prescribe Suboxone without an initial in-person visit in most cases. Mississippi state law requires insurance parity for telehealth.
- Yes. Telehealth induction follows the same protocol as in-office — Casey walks the COWS scale on camera, confirms you're in withdrawal, sends the script to your local pharmacy, and stays on for the first dose.
- Anywhere in Mississippi. Casey is licensed statewide. Patients in the Delta, Pine Belt, Coast, river towns, central MS, and northeast are all eligible. You only need to be physically in Mississippi during the visit.
- Yes. Mississippi parity law requires insurance to cover telehealth at the same rate as in-person. BCBS Mississippi, Medicaid, and Magnolia Health all cover telehealth substance use visits. Generic medication is on every formulary.
- Most new patients are scheduled within one week. Same-week induction is routine. Call (662) 640-4004 and Kim sets it up.
- A phone, tablet, or computer with a camera and mic. The platform is HIPAA-compliant and works on cellular. No special app — we send a secure link.
- Video is HIPAA-encrypted, not recorded. Records are covered by 42 CFR Part 2 — stricter than HIPAA. Employers, family, and law enforcement cannot access them without your written consent.
- Yes. Casey is the only psychiatric provider at Life Balance. Same provider, every visit. No rotation.
Wherever you are in Mississippi, we can start.
Start with a new client intake. Most new telehealth patients have their first video visit within the same week.
Or call (662) 640-4004 · Mon – Thu 8 to 5, Fri 8 to noon