Financial Policy

The Insurance “Trap”

We chose not to work within the insurance “trap” to offer patients time-intensive, well-researched, expert care at 4 Better Health.

We understand you pay a lot for your health insurance.
We also know that unless you fit into a cookie-cutter mold it’s tough to fit into the algorithm of the insurance model.
And if you are a healthy person by weight and labs, you’ll likely get no where asking your provider for deeper lab testing to prevent a condition a family member has or to bring your body to a state of optimal health.

Due to time limitations with insurance our patients experience extremely limited interactions with their other medical providers and others come to us after trying many different insurance covered treatments and specialists yet continue to suffer with symptoms.

• When clinics bill insurance, providers must sign a contract that allows the insurance company to determine which services will be provided (or not) and the amount of time (which is often very limited) they spend with their patients.
• Regardless of complexity, insurance establishes a fee and time allotted to see a patient. Insurance based clinics are seeing more patients in less time to keep up with low reimbursements and this is reflected in quick, suboptimal care.  For this reason, most clinics are forced to join with conglomerate companies to keep them afloat.
• Insurance companies are typically not focused on integrative therapies, they are focused on medications and surgeries as ‘first line’ approach, we however will work with you to reduce and resolve your condition by treating the underlying ‘root’ cause.
• Insurance often will not recognize nutrition or lifestyle counseling as a need for reversing chronic symptoms, however we know this is key to healing.
• We spend up 30-90 minutes with our patients, we have found that we cannot stay in the insurance networks and provide the time-intensive, well-researched, expert care if we stuck with the 7-10 minute insurance model.

Why we charge for follow up lab review and phone calls

Some patients have asked why we charge for follow-up and telephone consultations when reviewing lab results. Preventative health care and resolving chronic conditions takes considerable time and expertise on the part of your provider and these services can’t be offered for free.

In between your visits, our providers spend a significant amount of time reviewing your results, researching your unique case and developing your optimal wellness plan. Whether the testing be traditional labs or functional labs, we review each lab value, explain their role, where your lab values sit in comparison to the optimal (not ‘normal’) range, how these high or low values are interconnected to your unique symptoms and a plan for next steps.

Functional Medicine difference: Hyperlipidemia is the medical term used for elevated cholesterol. Unlike the traditional model visit with a 10 min appointment and lab result letter sent in the mail that with “normal” or “your cholesterol is high, enclosed is a prescription for a statin drug”, you can expect a detailed review of an advanced lipid panel which offers information on cholesterol size, cholesterol ‘behavior’ and level of risk for heart attack or stroke. We review practical lifestyle, nutritional and dietary methods (to include diet plans, food lists, recipes and/or supplements) for normalizing cholesterol. We will also discuss methods to avoid untoward side effects from medications or shift to reducing them if possible. These appointments are 30-60 minutes in length.

To inquire about an appointment, call 508-625-1807 Or fill out your health history using our online intake form