Do I still need a primary care provider?
Yes. I am a solo practitioner working on a consultation basis only. I do not provide on-call services for more urgent issues, or general health maintenance screenings.
When to contact your PCP:
- For more acute health issues, such as colds or other acute infections, pain management, traumatic injuries
- For standard office procedures, vaccinations, general check-ups (pap smears, mammograms, etc.)
- For urgent care matters, after-hours visits, or on-call physician assistance
- For refills of regular prescriptions managed by your PCP
How many appointments do I need?
This depends on the chronicity and complexity of your particular health challenges, as well as variables like cooking skills, social support, and physical fitness. A typical course may be 3 appointments in 2-4 month intervals, with email follow-up in between. More complex cases require more frequent and longer-term follow-up.
Many patients use Personal Health Consultations as second opinions or explorations of new options. In these cases, they need only 1 appointment or sporadic check-ins.
How is your practice different from other functional medicine practices?
Please read Appointments for details.
I’m vegan or vegetarian. Will I have to eat meat?
Food recommendations can certainly be accommodated for vegans, vegetarians, or other food choices. This may mean, however, supplementing with more supplements to support underlying deficiencies.
I also work closely with a whole foods nutritionists and can provide referrals if necessary or desired.
Do you take insurance?
This is a consultation practice modeled on the gift economy. See Appointments for more details.
While I don’t bill insurance, I can generate a super bill upon request. You can seek reimbursement from your insurer if you have a PPO health plan.
I am categorized as an “out of network” provider.
In many cases, a PPO carrier will cover 60-80% of these types of comprehensive office visits, after applicable deductibles have been met. It varies with each insurance carrier, so please check with your insurance ahead of time to know what will be covered. HMOs generally do not cover such specialty services.
Medicare does not cover these visits. I have opted out of Medicare, meaning you’ll need to sign a waiver upon registering, saying you will not bill Medicare for any consultations.
What services are NOT rendered?
If you’re looking for any of the below diagnostics or treatments, please see the Contact page for colleagues I trust.
- Functional medicine lab testing (gut flora evaluations, tick-borne infection panels, hormone panels, food sensitivities, etc.)
- Intravenous (IV) Vitamin Therapy
- Chelation Therapy
- Narcotics Management of Chronic Pain
- Anti-Aging Hormone Therapy or Bio-Identical Hormone Therapy
- Acupuncture and/or Chinese Herbs
- Chiropractic Manipulation
- Homeopathy
Additional information
For informational purposes only, a link to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Open Payments web page is provided here. The federal Physician Payments Sunshine Act requires that detailed information about payment and other payments of value worth over ten dollars ($10) from manufacturers of drugs, medical devices, and biologics to physicians and teaching hospitals be made available to the public.
The Open Payments database is a federal tool used to search payments made by drug and device companies to physicians and teaching hospitals. It can be found here.