Yes. We are out of network with insurance carriers in order to retain control and delivery the best quality of care possible, rather than care being dictated by a third party payer who does not necessarily know what is best for you and your child.
We currently used a tiered-system of cost, in order to make the office and visits as accessible as possible. The simplest visits– preventive well care, simple sick visits, vaccine consults, etc– is billed the least expensive in order to make integrative primary care available to more people. While these self pay rates may seem higher than would be expensive, please realize that these rates are similar, or often times, less, than what large medical groups get paid for the same service but with less time allotted to you and without the additional integrative medicine expertise than we can deliver.
As we see increasing numbers of medically complex patients– Autism, PANDAS/PANS, Auto-immune encephalitis, multiple complex diagnoses (asthma, eczema, ADHD, Sensory Processing disorders, genetic conditions, cerebral palsy, etc– then these are priced at a higher price point as they require much more work outside of the visit and the additional rate helps to compensate spent outside thew actual visit time reviewing labs, writing additional prescriptions, reviewing notes, etc.
Please also remember that when comparing self pay rates with different providers, make sure you understand what you are getting for the money. How much time is the doctor spending with you? Is it a 10 minute visit or a 45 minute visit? How much experience do they have taking care of pediatric patients? Are they actually qualified to do the visit? Do they have any additional training in the subject they are caring for with your child? Do they have the humility to say “No” to a visit when they do not have the qualifications to do so? Or will they just see you to get the money?