An Explanation of Our Financial Policy
Dr. Rehmel and staff are passionate about what we do, and we feel that we have a
calling to provide as many people as possible with the highest quality natural health
care possible. Just as our services are unique to this region, our financial policies set us
apart from mainstream medicine. We have prepared the following information to answer
questions you or your family members may have about the rationale for our financial
policies. If, after reading this, you still have questions, feel free to speak with our staff.
Why We Do Not Accept Insurance Assignment
Many people who have contacted our office for our services have asked us why we do
not bill insurance directly when other medical and chiropractic providers do. We fully
understand the financial challenge this presents to some patients, and we wish there
were a way for us to bill your insurance company. Unfortunately, at this time, there is not.
Here is Why:
When clinics bill health insurance companies directly, the doctors are required to
become participating providers. The doctors must sign a contract that allows the
insurance company to determine which services they will and will not provide and how
much they can charge for those services. In general, insurance companies are not
focused on any preventive or wellness services. They are heavily invested in the
conventional model of health care that too often relies on drugs and surgery. We are
committed to the functional medicine model that addresses the underlying causes of
your symptoms with specific nutritional and lifestyle recommendations.
A participating provider must agree to accept the fees the insurance company
establishes, regardless of whether the fees are reasonable or applicable to that
practice. In general, these established fees cover the actual cost of the briefest (and we
believe the lowest quality) care. Doctors who are participating providers are required to
accept discounted fees for their services, and they cannot bill the patient for the
difference between their fee and what the insurance company will pay. Therefore, the
clinic must write off the difference, often as much as 50% or more of the doctor’s fee for
service. At the same time, the participating provider’s office overhead costs have
increased dramatically because of the staff, time, and equipment necessary for
processing and tracking claims.
In today’s healthcare environment, the actual cost for doctors to provide services
continues to rise, while the percentage of reasonable fees that insurance payments
cover is declining. At the same time, the profits of health insurance companies and the
salaries of their top executives continue to rise to record levels.
Most doctors and clinics cope with the requirements of being participating providers by
keeping their office visits very brief, so that they can see many patients within a given
time frame. When their clinic becomes unprofitable, it must be supported by another
institution. Most primary care medical clinics are not self-sustaining financially and have
had to merge with hospitals whose expensive, high-tech surgical and diagnostic
procedures are priced to keep the clinics afloat financially. Most chiropractic clinics keep
office visits very brief and see many people per hour. Ironically, some of our patients
complain about their extremely brief and unsatisfactory office visits in other chiropractic
and medical practices, while at the same time expressing frustration that we do not
accept insurance. Unfortunately, we have found that we cannot be participating
providers in the insurance networks and provide the time-intensive, well-researched,
expert intensive care that we do.
Why Our Team Must Charge for Your Follow-up Consultations
In follow-up visits, Dr. Rehmel spends significant time discussing your results with you.
For example, it is relatively simple to inform a patient that her mammogram is negative;
but it is entirely different to discuss the results of more complex functional evaluations
and to recommend practical lifestyle and dietary strategies that may help to prevent
breast cancer. Patients often complain that conventional doctors do little to nothing in
the way of truly preventive medicine. We want you to understand that preventive health
care takes considerable time and expertise on the part of the doctor and that someone
has to pay for that time and expertise.
Medicare Recipients
We do not accept Medicare and cannot submit a bill through Medicare, or a
supplemental insurance, for reimbursement. If you have Medicare then we cannot offer
a consultation due to billing through Medicare and the federal regulations.
If you wish to be provided with a consultation through our practice, and you are
choosing do so outside of your insurance coverage, we are happy to see you and assist
you with your wellness needs. Our office does not turn anyone away that is seeking the
counsel and recommendations that we provide but we do advise that you can seek out
similar/comparable providers that accept Medicare for reimbursement.
Cancellation and Rescheduling Policies
● We request that Notice of Cancellation of an appointment be made in
accordance to the below mentioned policy.
● If you wish to cancel or reschedule your appointment, please call the office.
● Repeated “missed appointments” may result in termination of services and
discharge as a patient from the practice. If you wish to re-establish care with our
practice you will have to make a new patient appointment and incur the fees
associated with that service.
● We ask that you please be respectful of our cancellation policies stated below as
a courtesy to us as well as others in the practice.
● We understand that emergencies and unexpected circumstances do happen and
we will do our best to work with you to reschedule appointments when possible in
a timely fashion.
● Cancellation fees may be applied if cancellation falls into the below stated policy
based on your appointment type.
Initial Consults or New Patient appointments:
● Appointments must be cancelled or rescheduled at least 1 week prior to your
scheduled appointment or cancellation fees will apply.
● Cancellation fees will equal 50% of the appointment fee ($175) for the first late
cancellation and 100% of the appointment fee ($350) for subsequent late
cancellations.
● If your initial appointment is scheduled within 1 week, the appointment must be
cancelled or rescheduled at least 3 business days prior to your scheduled
appointment or cancellation fees will apply.
Case Review appointments:
1. Appointments must be cancelled or rescheduled at least 3 business days prior to
your scheduled appointment or cancellation fees will apply.
2. If you would like to cancel or reschedule with less than 3 business days’ notice,
please note that you will be charged 50% of the case review fee, $100.
Follow-up appointments:
● Appointments must be cancelled or rescheduled at least 3 business days prior to
your scheduled appointment or cancellation fees will apply.
15 minute appointment $75 (50%)
30 minute appointment $35 (50%)