Questions
The first one is the whole practice, and the answer is no.
- Do you take my insurance?
- No. Not yours, not anybody's, not Medicare, not for anything. This practice does not bill insurance at all — you pay a flat monthly membership directly and that is the entire financial relationship. It is the single most important sentence on this website, and the misunderstanding it prevents is somebody arriving with a card expecting to hand it over.
- What is not covered by the membership?
- Hospitals, specialists, surgery, imaging beyond what is in this building, ambulances, maternity, prescription costs at an outside pharmacy, and anything at all once you are admitted somewhere. The membership covers primary care — the doctor, the time, and what can be done in this office — and nothing beyond it.
- Do I still need insurance?
- Yes, and this is not a soft yes. Membership here is not health insurance and does not satisfy anything that requires it. Most members hold a high-deductible plan for the hospital-shaped catastrophes and use the membership for everything else, which is the arrangement this model was designed around.
- What happens if I need a specialist or a hospital?
- You get a referral, a phone call to the specialist from the doctor rather than a fax into the void, and help working out what it will cost before you go. What you do not get is any of it paid for. Where a cash price beats an insurance price the practice will tell you, because sometimes it does by a lot.
- Can I join if the panel is full?
- There is a waiting list, and it moves — people relocate, and the panel turns over slowly. What does not happen is the cap quietly rising. The number of open places is published on the panel page and updated as they change, so you can see exactly where things stand rather than ringing to ask.
Nothing on this site is medical advice. This is not an emergency service — in an emergency ring 911 or go to the nearest emergency department.