Initial Visit
The cost of an initial visit is $170.00. This includes a complete history and physical and plan of care.
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Practice Enrollment
For ongoing care after the initial visit, the service fee is $85.00 per month. This includes all physician consultation. Benefits of practice enrollment include:
- Easy appointment scheduling directly with Dr. Black
- Access to physician consultation by phone or messaging 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
- Courtesy calls or visits to help coordinate care if you are hospitalized
- Home visits for homebound elders within the 285 perimeter.
- Coordination of care with home health and assisted living staff when needed
Consultation
Patients may request single visit consultation without a practice membership depending on availability. Common reasons people request a consultation include:
- Second opinion
- Evaluation of geriatric syndromes like polypharmacy (over-medication), gait or memory impairment
- History and physical for 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 except, rarely, for some restrictive Medicare PPOs. The only extra fee Medicare patients incur is the initial visit and monthly membership fee.