An Independent Medical Clinic

We can help you minimize your health costs in a variety of ways.

Because we are independent, we can offer you the treatment that is best for you without insurance company restrictions on diagnostic methods or treatment modalities. You can be in control of your costs. We will discuss the options that we see for you and the relative cost of each.

Value for Money

As an independent medical clinic, we must work to provide maximum value to our clients/patients. We take pride in providing service people are willing to pay for.

Payment at Time of Service

We require payment at the time of service. This allows us to keep our attention on doing the best we can for you, rather than acting as a bill collector or credit agency. I wish we could charge you less, but a medical practice burns money like a train burns coal and there are many reasons there are few private medical practices remaining.

Medical Insurance

The only governmental insurance program we can afford to work with is Washington State Labor and Industries.  Medicare and other government programs pay less than the cost of providing services; they are subsidized in the clinics that serve you under those programs.

If you have private insurance, we can give you the diagnostic and treatment codes you need to submit a claim to your insurance company, so they can reimburse you, in full or in part, for your services here. If they cover our services, it will be as an out-of-network physician.  Your insurance company can give you information and their particular claim forms so you can submit a claim.

Your insurance may not cover all your costs at our clinic because:

• Their payment schedules are developed based upon what they expect the typical physician to do.  They do not expect that physician to spend time reviewing previous medical records at length, undertaking a careful interview and physical examination, look up new or additional information as required, or to compose and write a thorough case report and medical record. With a practice as small as ours, I often will solve certain medical problems while thinking them over away from the office.
• Insurance companies usually do not cover preventive services, nutritional injections or certain nutritional or functional tests.
• Telephone consultation coverage may not be covered depending on changing regulations.

Medicare and other governmental programs

To maintain the freedom to practice medicine the best we can, we have separated ourselves from managed care companies and all governmental insurance. Medicare, while beneficial in many ways, results in an intervention-rich and procedure-heavy style of medical care.  We do not participate in Medicare.

You can purchase medical services from us on a private basis.  See our Insurance Answers page to learn why.

Managed Care

We do not participate in managed care programs. If you are enrolled in such a program, you may not wish to engage our services except when we can provide something they can’t. We are happy to work in conjunction with your managed care physician and to coordinate your care with them to minimize your out-of-pocket expense. We ended our managed care contracts in 1998 for good reasons.

Information on purchasing medical insurance

Click here for more Information about purchasing and using health insurance.