Policies and Fees

Because many of the treatments used in integrative medicine are not recognized by consensus mainstream medicine, we are a Fee-for-Service (cash-based) practice and we DO NOT accept insurance.  As a courtesy, we will provide you with a statement which is necessary for you to file an insurance claim with your provider. Please keep a copy for your records before sending the original to your insurance company. Your insurance is a contract between you and your insurer, and we do not get involved in any disputes between the two of you. We cannot guarantee the amount or availability of coverage for our services and treatments under your health care insurance policy. You are responsible for the payment of our invoices without regard to insurance coverage.

We have chosen to opt-out of the Medicare/Medicaid system, and therefore services provided by Whole Health Center Houston are not eligible to be covered by Medicare or Medicaid.   However, X-rays and other tests ordered by our providers that are to be performed elsewhere, are usually covered and may be billed to Medicare by whoever performs the service.  All Medicare recipients are required to sign a contract with our office that acknowledges our opt-out.

Please arrive promptly (or early) for your appointment. We are very respectful of our clients time, and go to considerable lengths to insure that our patients are seen within 15 minutes of their appointment.
 

We do not overbook. A time slot is reserved especially for you when you schedule an appointment. If you need to cancel or to reschedule an appointment, we require 24 hours advance notice so we can fill the slot. Cancellations made with less than the required 24 hours will be charged $100 for the missed appointment.

We reserve a spot just for you on our calendar, and we are expecting you, therefore we are very strict on our no-show policy.  If you are enrolled in one of our Whole Health Programs that includes a follow-up visit, and you do not show up for your included follow-up visit, then you will forfeit the visit.  If you wish to re-schedule the missed follow-up then it will be charged at our regular follow-up rates. 

At Whole Health Center Houston, we are very serious about protecting your medical records from prying eyes.  We have invested in a state-of-the-art electronic medical records system, and were careful to choose a vendor that does not have financial ties to big pharma or to the health insurance industry.  Our system stores all of your data on a secure server, and allows you the convenience of interacting with your provider through secure messaging and accessing your files from the comfort of your home.  But we will never sell your data to a third party, and we have gone to great lengths to keep from giving it away; even so-called de-identified data. Specifically, our providers chose to turn down $65,000 each so that we would not be required to report certain data to the government.  For example, one stipulation to qualify for the government funds would have required that we have our system tied into Immunization Information System.  We simply were not willing to report your data to another agency.  

Though our providers prefer natural remedies, there are instances where prescription medications are indicated.  In such cases, our office will electronically submit the prescription directly to your preferred pharmacy on the same day as your visit.  For prescriptions that include refills, the pharmacy should honor those refills without any further input from our office.  When you are near the end of your final refill, your pharmacy might automatically initiate a request for a renewal.  Because we can not easily verify if the prescription renewal is warranted or desired, pharmacy-initiated requests for renewals will NOT be honored. All requests to renew a prescription must be submitted directly by the patient, either via the patient portal or by phone.

At Whole Health Center Houston, your health and well-being is our top priority.  We spend quality time with you during your appointment, and then more time after you have left our office to be sure that we understand your unique needs, that we’ve chosen a treatment plan that addresses those needs, and that we’ve documented every step along the way. 

We are thankful and pleased to say that we have no history of malpractice.  Because of our history, and in order to keep our costs down, our providers choose not to carry malpractice insurance.  Therefore, in the unlikely event that a dispute or alleged malpractice should arise, we ask that you submit to binding arbitration instead of litigation.