"The past year and a half has been extremely challenging for everyone, including our small healthcare clinic.

In order to further our standard of providing quality holistic, relationship-based care to our community, we must adapt to meet increased costs and staffing shortages that are impacting clinics nationwide.

Throughout the pandemic we have worked tirelessly to make ourselves available to serve you and insure that impact of these challenges do not impact patient care. In order to remain vibrant into the future, we will be making changes to streamline our administrative processes, meet our rising costs and reduce demand on our staff due to being short staffed.

• As of January 1, 2022 we will no longer accept health insurance to allow us to focus more of our energies towards patient care.
• For the first time since 2016, we are marginally increasing our appointment pricing for Functional Medicine appointments (starting Jan 1, 2022).
• Effective immediately, we are no longer offering phlebotomy services (blood draws) and will instead be referring our patients out to local labs already structured for efficient sample collection.

These changes will mainly impact our Functional Medicine care and will have minimal effect on our Physical Therapy, Frequency Specific Microcurrent and Acupuncture services.

We value and appreciate all of you who have trusted us to be a part of your health journey and understand that these changes might make it more difficult to access our functional medicine services. We offer our sincere apologies in advance to all that might experience hardship."

In anticipation of questions this may bring up, here are more details:

1. How much will appointments cost?

The price increases are just for Functional Medicine appointments (Physical Therapy, Frequency Specific Microcurrent and Acupuncture appointments costs will remain the same as they already are):

• Initial Appt: $350 (75-90 minute initial appt)
• Follow Up Appt: $225 (up to 45 minute appt)
• Extended Follow Up: $300 (up to 60 minute appt)

2. How often do I need to be seen?

This varies based on your individual needs and treatments. Typically after the initial appointment, a follow up is 4-8 weeks later. Once there is a stable treatment plan and we are seeing improvements, follow ups are often every 3-6 months. After there is consistent improvement and stability, routine monitoring and follow up is typically recommended every 6 months.

3. Are labs billable to insurance?

This is determined by your individual insurance coverage for labs. Most people have some amount of insurance coverage for labs. We will continue ordering labs in the same manner so whatever your prior experience has been with your insurance company should continue.

4. Can I have one last appointment before you no longer take my insurance?

We are delaying the insurance related changes until January 1, 2022 to give our patients time to schedule another covered appt. You can schedule with Tracy, FNP or Dianne, FNP.

5. Will you provide Superbills for me to submit to my insurance?

Typically just PPO insurance plans provide out-of-network reimbursement. For our patients who check with their insurance providers and are told that they do have out-of-network coverage we will provide a Superbill. We ask that you submit your Superbill and receive some reimbursement from your insurance provider prior to requesting an additional Superbill, just to be sure we know that reimbursement will be received.

6. Can you refer me to another Function Medicine practice that takes insurance in the area?

Unfortunately, there are no other Functional Medicine providers in the area that accept insurance that we are aware of.

7. What is the process if I choose to discontinue my care?

You may continue to access your lab results through the portal. Please email us at functionalmed@thehealingcollective.us if you would like to download all of your labs through the Charm portal so we can be sure they are all “shared.” We can also transfer your labs to another practice directly if you complete a Release of Records. This is a required step due to HIPAA (Patient Confidentiality Law).

"Lastly, I want to deeply thank you for all of the years of providing care to you! The Healing Collective began in 2014 and has steadily grown since then- mostly from patient referrals. Thank you for trusting us with your care and your loved ones care! We would love to continue for years more and these changes are setting us up for many more years of supporting you. Thank you for your understanding and support.

Wishing you so well,

Tracy Shulsinger, FNP