No - and we don't plan to take any type of insurance in the near future. Insurance companies should not dictate your medical care. Unfortunately, the insurance industry is money-centric and proficient in denying coverage for imaging, medications, labwork, procedures, medical equipment needs, and/or consultations.
For those with Medicare or Medicaid, a separate contract is required, stating we at Virtue Medical will not abuse their services by billing them for your services. This also requires your signature to indicate to Medicare and/or Medicaid that you, the recipient, will not bill for their services either.
If you want to use your insurance (and I advise everyone to keep aware of benefits such as FREE GENERAL PHYSICAL LABS which may be offered by your policy), then of course! You are by no means required to utilize our in-house lab, imaging partners, or medication inventory. We want you to save your money. But, in order to maximize savings, it's important to understand your insurance policy and know all of your options.
Your provider is available 24/7. The only time your provider is NOT available is when they are on vacation or have an emergency. In this case, a backup will be available. Members have exclusive access to their provider by email and phone. We recommend text messages when a situation is more urgent, and an email with less urgent matters.
DPC focuses on both quality and availability. This is maintained by:
We always want what's best for our members, and we strive to do our best at Virtue Medical. While we never want to lose any of our patients, we understand there are plenty of circumstances that arise. We make cancelling a very simple process - just let us know via a phone call to the office at (816) 200-1533, send us an email, or let us know in-person. Cancellation is completely free, and does not require any explanation.
Yes, but for direct primary care members only! Medically appropriate use of marijuana can help treat the symptoms of (not cure) quite a few conditions. Evidence-based medicine shows promise for using marijuana for the treatment of insomnia, but there is limited/lacking data when it comes to other uses such as pain or anxiety. Likely in the next several years we will see newer data reflecting marijuana's utility in treating many other conditions. Still, for direct primary care members this is offered as long as your condition meets MO state requirements.
* We take credit, debit, cash, ACH, check, *FSA, *HSA, and HRA.
*HSA, HRA, and FSA payments are at times a particularly tricky matter (depending on a company's HR determination), but ultimately they are considered an acceptable form of payment in Direct Primary Care. We do come across instances where payments are denied unless a more detailed receipt is submitted to explain the charges more precisely. It's best to discuss these payment types with your HR department (or whoever is responsible for insurance benefits from your company or provider).
It's easiest to think of DPC as a "cheaper" version of Concierge Medicine. As for Concierge Medicine, several definitions circulate around the web making it confusing. The basic idea here is that Concierge is much more expensive and typically charges for every type of service rendered in addition to charging a monthly or yearly membership fee. Most concierge practices also bill insurance.
NOTIFY US ASAP!!! We know money gets tight sometimes - and we understand. The most critical thing you absolutely must do in this situation is let us know as soon as you can if you are having difficulty (or even suspect that you might begin to have difficulty) paying your bills. We want to help in any way we can!!! While there are late fees and re-registration fees, we rarely charge those when you communicate with us and develop a payment plan to get your bill paid off (even if it takes a long time!). We also reach out when a bill is past due, so please watch for those communications. When we don't get responses back, however, we assume that you've decided to cancel your membership - which leaves you with an escalated re-registration fee (SO PLEASE BE PROACTIVE!!!).
