From Layoff Notice to a Thriving Psychiatry Practice: How Dr. Ashley Tippins Launched Remedy Psychiatry and Counseling

Dr. Ashley Tippins had the name for her future practice picked out three years before she opened its doors.

Today, Remedy Psychiatry and Counseling provides in-person and telehealth psychiatric care from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. in an Alabama community with no other medication management provider. The practice has surpassed 30 patients, adds one to three new patients most days, and provides clinical placements for psychiatric NP students who struggled to find them elsewhere.

But before Remedy opened, Ashley faced an abrupt job loss, a rural mental-health access gap, and one major barrier to launching: finding an affordable collaborating physician in Alabama. Nationwide, 160 million people live in areas designated as Mental Health Professional Shortage Areas, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. 

The Challenge: Turning a Long-Held Goal Into a Practice

After years of working for other organizations, Ashley knew she wanted to practice differently. She repeatedly saw patients squeezed into rigid appointment blocks, even when they needed more time.

“You can’t get the full assessment of what you’re trying to do,” she says.

The decision to open her own practice came sooner than expected. Ashley received a 90-day notice from the rural hospital where she worked, which was a nearly two-hour commute each way. Her supervisor made clear the change was not performance-related, but as a single parent, Ashley had to quickly find a way to support her family.

At the same time, she saw a clear need in her community. Patients were waiting months for psychiatric care, often traveling to Montgomery for appointments. Ashley brought the Remedy Psychiatry and Counseling idea back off the shelf and began building.

One obstacle stood in the way: Alabama requires NPs to have a collaborating physician.

“I’ve always been told, ‘You’re going to pay thousands for a collaborator,’” Ashley says. “I’m going to be paying thousands for somebody and not even making a dollar yet.”

That assumption had delayed her plans before.

The Solution: A Collaborating Physician and Support to Launch

Ashley first encountered CollabDocs through a Facebook ad. Her initial reaction was cautious: “Is this real, or is this some kind of gimmick?”

A conversation with a nurse practitioner on the CollabDocs team changed that. Ashley was able to speak with someone who understood the realities of opening an NP-led practice.

“It’s good when you can talk to somebody that’s on the same playing field as you,” she says.

The cost was also more accessible than she anticipated. Because Remedy uses RXNT as its EHR, Ashley qualified for a partner discount.

Even better, Ashley already knew her collaborating physician through another role. When it was time to launch Remedy, she added the new practice location to her existing collaboration agreement rather than starting from scratch.

CollabDocs’ 90-Day Concierge Onboarding helped understand the administrative work needed to get the practice ready, so Ashley could focus on bringing much-needed medication management services to her community. By helping healthcare practices navigate collaboration and launch requirements, CollabDocs supports organizations working to expand access to mental health care.

“You all already had that paperwork in process,” she says. “It wasn’t left to me to get the paperwork going. I had somebody doing some of everything to pull everything together.”

The Results: Patients Before the Website Launched

Ashley originally planned to offer after-hours telehealth alongside her full-time job. She knew many patients could not easily take time off work, use limited PTO, or negotiate a daytime appointment with an employer.

The practice grew faster than planned.

Her first insurance approval, with Aetna, came through in under a week. Then she found an office in her own community, secured two months of free rent, and received the keys on a Saturday.

Before her website was even live, Ashley saw her first patient.

A parent contacted her because their adult daughter was three days away from running out of psychiatric medication. Her previous psychiatrist would not see her, and the weekend was approaching. Ashley sent the patient an RXNT intake link, completed registration, and helped ensure she did not go without medication.

As demand for in-person care increased, CollabDocs helped Ashley expand her collaboration agreement to include both telehealth and office-based visits.

“You all made everything flawless,” she says.

Remedy Psychiatry Today

• More than 30 patients, with one to three new patients on many days.
• A mix of insurance and cash-pay patients, including more cash-pay demand than Ashley expected.
• Evening access, including telehealth appointments and in-office visits as late as 8 p.m.
• Local medication management access for patients in Wetumpka and Elmore County who previously traveled to Montgomery.
• Psychiatric clinical placement opportunities for NP students who had searched as far as Georgia and Mobile.
• Local community recognition, including a Chamber of Commerce ribbon-cutting covered by local news.
• Enough growth for Ashley to leave her 9-to-6 role and focus on Remedy, while continuing PRN assessments for her former employer.

A Practice Built Around Access

Ashley’s story is not only about opening a practice. It is about creating access in a community where patients needed timely psychiatric care and future psychiatric NPs needed clinical training opportunities.

“For a no, I’m gonna find a way to make it happen,” she says.

For NPs in states that require physician collaboration, the requirement does not have to stop a practice before it starts. With an aligned physician partner and support for the administrative process, Ashley turned a 90-day notice into a growing practice serving an unmet local need.

Source: Customer interview conducted September 3, 2026.