Initial Visit
The cost of an initial visit is $150.00 paid at the time of scheduling. This includes a complete history and physical and plan of care. This visit may be to establish primary care, to complete physical forms needed for employment, assisted living or nursing home placement.
Follow Up Visits for Non-Enrolled Patients
After the initial visit, some people choose to be seen as needed and pay per visit. The per-visit fee for non-Members is $150. Patients accessing care via fee-for-service are required to come in to clinic for a face to face visit for medical care. No telemedicine service or e-mail consultation is included.
Practice Enrollment
For people who wish to become an enrolled patient, the fee is $75.00 per month. This includes all physician consultation. The only separate fees are for procedures, for which there is a small charge to cover the cost of supplies. Benefits of practice membership include:
- Priority appointment scheduling with openings usually available the same or next business day for urgent needs
- Access to physician consultation by phone or e-mail between visits
- Access to some medications at deep discount through wholesale pharmacy Andameds
- Access to discounted lab services through LabCorp
- Specialist case reviews for medical advice from over 100 medical specialties through RubiconMD at no cost
- Courtesy visits while you are in the hospital to help coordinate care with your hospital care team
- Home visits for homebound elders within the 285 perimeter.
- Coordination of care with home health and assisted living staff when needed
Consultation
Patients are welcome to schedule for single consultation visits without a practice membership. Common reasons people request a consultation visit include:
- Second opinion
- Integrative or functional medicine advice
- Evaluation of geriatric syndromes like polypharmacy (over-medication), gait or memory impairment
- History and physical for employment, preventive care, assisted living or nursing home placement.
Reimbursement
The fees for direct primary care are paid directly by you, the patient. If you have a private insurance policy you are given a "superbill" receipt to submit to your insurance policy. They may reimburse all or part of the cost of out-of-network care, depending on your plan. You may wish to call your insurance before your visit to check on reimbursement of office visit fees, or labs & tests ordered by a direct care MD. If your insurance only covers labs or testing ordered by their preferred providers, we do have access to low cash pay rates for labs, medications and some medical testing often cheaper than the insurance based rate.
Medicare
Medicare does not reimburse the cost of direct primary care and claims may not be submitted. Many patients enrolled in practice membership are medicare patients. They find that enhanced access to the physician helps reduce unnecessary use of urgent and emergent care so they ultimately spend less on healthcare overall. Although the physician fee is separate from Medicare, all orders for lab, imaging, therapy and specialist care are covered per usual Medicare criteria. The only extra fee Medicare patients incur is the initial visit and monthly membership fee.