DPC: New Patients
FAQ'S
What Is Direct Primary Care?
What is holistic primary care?
Holistic Care is complete patient care that encompasses the physical, emotional, social, and spiritual needs of a person. Holistic providers recognize that every person is unique. We nurture the patient as a whole, collaborating with them to honor their values, beliefs and health experiences. We consider the patient’s complete profile and not just the medical diagnosis. The current healthcare system is set up to treat symptoms in a piecemeal fashion. We go beyond treating symptoms, focusing on reversing illness by addressing root causes, while empowering our patients with the tools and knowledge to feel better with exercise, lifestyle modifications, and proper nutrition.
Do you accept any insurances? Why not?
We do not accept insurance.
We started this journey planning to take all insurances in order to be accessible to all patients, but two things changed our minds. First, insurance companies pressure providers to prescribe drugs based on pharmaceutical-funded research and marketing with a disregard to patient individuality and personalized best care practices. Second, insurance company contracts prohibit us from offering affordable prices to our uninsured patients.
We are instead joining the growing number of providers who are choosing models where we are able to provide meaningful care to patients again.
If you have insurance – your insurance will still cover costs for any labs or prescriptions we give you (since these charges come from the lab or the pharmacy). We do offer extremely discounted rates on labs for those with high deductibles or without insurance. We do not charge for any in-house rapid tests.
It is recommended that you maintain insurance as this is often needed for specialists, urgent care, or ER/hospital visits. Most patients choosing this model for primary care have an insurance plan with a higher deductible or belong to a health sharing group such as Altrua, CMF Curo, Liberty HealthShare, Sedera Health, or Solidarity.
If you have Medicare – We currently cannot see any Medicare eligible patients. Federal law prohibits us from providing any care to Medicare-eligible patients until we have been approved in their Opt Out program. If you are Medicare-eligible, you may join our wait list by sending us an email here with subject line “Medicare Wait List”, and we will contact you once we receive approval.
Read more about insurance, FSA, & HSA here.
What is your pricing?
We aim to have full transparency in costs & keep it simple. We don’t believe in surprise bills and list our costs upfront.
What makes this practice different?
We want to become your health advocate and healing partner. In our current healthcare system, most providers are constantly in a rush, with an average caseload of between 1500-4000 patients. Our goal is to have less than 10% of that patient load. This will allow us to have more time to listen, explain, collaborate, and understand each other. Because we spend less time dealing with the rules of insurers, and no longer have to report back to them with metrics or your personal patient information, we have more time with you. We enjoy the process of developing close relationships to manage our patient’s medical needs, and we hope to be your medical home.
Everyone can have a personal doctor or provider easily accessible to them who is their personal advocate. Designed so you can easily have a medical expert that is invested in your wellbeing and happiness for a very affordable cost, DPC is the best game in town in affordable healthcare. Northern Virginia Holistic Primary Care combines this with a holistic integrative approach to care.
Can you tell me more about the DPC membership?
Your membership includes access to the providers by telephone, patient portal, secure email communication, telemedicine, annual physicals, office visits for follow up or acute illness as needed, and lab drawn in clinic with deeply discounted rates (or you can apply your insurance for labs if you wish). Should you have a problem that is beyond the scope of primary care, we will refer you outside of the practice. With that said, we will aim to collaborate with the specialist, review results and evaluations, and coordinate accordingly with you. We aim to provide comprehensive care and strive to prevent or reduce hospitalizations and specialty referrals. You can terminate your membership at any time and will end the last day of the calendar month.
We do not accept insurance or participate in government programs. This removes insurance from deciding on what kind of care you deserve or will qualify for. It also allows us to keep your personal information private and closed from third party access. Without the standard contractual insurance agreements we are able to provide longer relaxed care visits and offer wholesale prices on labs. Read more about insurance here.
Many doctors and providers feel they are able to provide meaningful care to patients again without having the dictates of insurance companies or policies.
As a patient – out of pocket expenses insurances impose on you don’t justify the higher premiums with their more expensive plans (unless you have a major health crisis every 9 months). Whether you choose the DPC model or not, make sure your insurance monthly rates justify the out of pocket difference for you.
If you opt for DPC, you are choosing the best deal in healthcare – easy access to your provider who knows you personally, keeps track of your preventative screens, is invested in your care and well being, and is focused on getting to the root of medical conditions – at a low affordable cost per month.
Is this membership model right for me?
We encourage you to schedule a free unconditional consultation to discuss your health and goals. This will allow us to get to know each other and determine if we are the right fit.
Do you have plans for small businesses to offer healthcare access to their employees?
Yes, we offer customized memberships to small businesses. Many small business owners would love to offer healthcare benefits to their employees but are unable to afford traditional health insurance. Offering our membership to your employees is a low cost way to keep your employees healthy and make them feel valued.
Can I schedule an appointment if I have Medicare?
We cannot currently accept any patient who is Medicare eligible.
Federal law prohibits us from providing any care to Medicare-eligible patients until we have been approved in their Opt Out program. If you are Medicare-eligible, you may join our wait list by sending us an email here with subject line “Medicare Wait List”, and we will contact you once we receive approval.
Let us be clear, we would very much love to have you join our practice once we are cleared of the red tape.
How do I schedule an appointment and what are the following steps?
New patients: We are currently not accepting any patients into the DPC membership. We do have openings for new patients under the functional packages (this does not include primary care)
Established DPC members: tele-visits will be conducted through the Spruce health app.
How can I cancel an appointment? Are there any fees for canceling?
You may cancel through the portal or call/send us a message through the portal to cancel your visit.
There are no fees for canceling prior to 24 hours. If you cancel within 24 hours of your visit, there will be a $50 charge of visit. If you had an emergency, just call us, and we will cancel the charge.
Do you offer urgent care?
Our practice is not a substitute for 911. Always go to your local Emergency Room or call 911 for any medical emergency. We are a primary care office only. If a medical concern cannot safely wait to be addressed until business hours, it is considered an emergency. We do not provide emergency care. We aim to prevent unnecessary trips to the ER or Urgent Care centers through our comprehensive visits/communication. We plan to do our best to get our patients in for pressing issues for same day or next day appointments. If we are unable to see you in office we offer the convenience of secure email, telemedicine, and phone appointments. During normal business hours we strive to return your call/messages/emails within 4 hours. Messages left outside of business hours will be responded to within 24 hours by the provider.
Should I still have insurance?
Yes. Patients should enroll in a medical insurance plan or medical cost sharing plan to provide financial coverage should hospitalizations, imaging, or referral to a specialist be needed.
What if I need labs or imaging?
When you are a patient and continue to carry a health insurance plan, all X-Rays and imaging studies are covered by insurance as normal. Should you need labs, we can give lab orders to all the major lab companies (Lab Corp, Quest, etc.), and they will bill your insurance. If you prefer to pay cash for lab testing we have negotiated an extremely discounted rate for common lab tests.
Can you explain insurance, FSA, & HSA more? How do they apply here?
Yes. We break it down into what the terms in your insurance plan mean, what is FSA & HSA in this link, and whether you can use any of these towards our services.
Do you accept all patients?
Yes, we accept all patients ages 18 and up. We do focus on women’s health due to a deficiency in our healthcare system. There is a need to provide women with a comprehensive approach to wellness directed toward female physiology.