Practice Policies

Our goal is to provide you with the highest quality personalized care. We’re committed to improving the quality of life for all our patients.

Please fill out the history form prior to your visit. Most of our history forms are available online.

Patients

Our practice is limited to adult integrative medicine and  allergy. We require that all patients be under the care of  either a primary care physician and/or  internal medicine sub specialist such as a  cardiologist, gastroenterologist, etc.

    Medical Records

    You must authorize release of your medical records. The medical release form is available on our site. If you have previous medical records and lab tests, please bring them with you at the time of your first visit. We’ll review those records and scan the pertinent ones into our system.

    Initial Office Visit

    Our initial office visit for complex problems varies from an hour to an hour and half. During that time, we obtain your history. We also develop an initial diagnostic testing, which includes lab testing and treatment plan that usually includes nutritional supplements, medications, and referrals, as required.

    We discuss the tests that we recommend and the costs.

    Confirmation and Cancellation of Appointments

    There’s a 24-hour cancellation policy. If we don’t receive a timely cancellation notice, we will bill for a cancellation fee. We do remind you with a phone call one or two days before your appointment.

    Insurance Policy

    Our practice is a fee for service plan. Fees are due at the time of service. We provide you with a billing receipt with all the necessary codes to submit to your insurance carrier.

    We’re a preferred provider with United Healthcare. We bill United Healthcare directly for services.

    We do not bill labor and industries claims.

    We are not a Medicare provider. This means neither we nor you can bill Medicare for our services. We offer self pay Medicare patients a 15% discount.

    Insurance Billing

    Your insurance policy is a contract between you and your insurance company. We aren’t a party to that contract. We bill your insurance plan as long as you provide us with the correct information. (We bill all insurance plans.) Please know that your health insurance company may not cover some or perhaps all our services and we’re out of network for most insurance companies. You, as the patient, ultimately are responsible for payment of all the services provided by NW Integrative Medicine.

     

    Insurance companies that send the payment to the patient are: Blue Cross, Blue Shield, Asuris, and Lifewise. We will bill these companies for you, but since the payment goes to you the patient, we expect payment at time of service. After we receive payment or denial from your insurance, we bill directly to you with our monthly statement. We send past due payments over 90 days to collection, unless you call our office to establish a schedule of payments.

    For other carriers that send payment to the provider, we bill your insurance, but request full or partial payment at the time of service. If your deductible is met, then we accept a 40 percent copay at the time of service and bill your carrier for the balance. If your deductible is not met, then payment is due at the time of service.

    Payment Plans

    We realize that healthcare is expensive. Many of our patients have difficult problems requiring a year or more to treat. In most cases, the initial costs are the highest and cause budgetary issues. We now offer Care Credit, so that the cost of care can be spread over time. This a great option for treatments like prolozone, which are generally not covered by most insurance plans.

    If you have concerns about the cost of your care, please discuss your concerns with us. We can give you an estimate of the cost of laboratory testing, office visits, IVs, and supplements and develop a financial plan for covering these costs. We don’t have any control over the cost of laboratory testing, but we can schedule tests so they fit in the budget.

    Prescription Refills

    Make prescription refill requests through your pharmacy. We fill most of our refill requests electronically through our EMR system. It can take up to 72 hours to process a prescription refill. Scheduled medications require a signed printed signature and you can’t refill by phone.