Frequently Asked Questions
WHAT IS INTEGRATIVE MEDICINE?
Integrative Medicine combines the best of conventional medicine and complementary alternative medicine to treat the entire individual. It takes into account all the different aspects of a person's health including physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health. There is a large focus on prevention and the goal of treatment is to target and treat the root of disease, not only to treat symptoms.
HOW DOES THE PRACTICE WORK?
The practice is membership based with a monthly or annual fee. We do not accept health insurance as a form of payment. The membership fee includes any visits you need including an annual physical. You do not need to pay a co-pay or any additional fees at each visit.
WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES OF A MEMBERSHIP-BASED PRACTICE ?
DO I NEED HEALTH INSURANCE?
You should still have some form of health insurance in case you need to see a specialist or receive care in the emergency room or hospital.
Health insurance will also help pay for your medications, labs or imaging you may need, or any care you may need outside of Vermont Integrative MD.
In a traditional primary care model, doctors have limited time to see patients. Visits are often only 15 minutes or 30 minutes long due to constraints placed by our healthcare insurance model.
Usually the focus of the visit is an acute problem or management of an ongoing chronic problem. Because of the shortened time span of the visits, doctors are forced to usually focus on ongoing medication management, making referrals, etc. and therefore, have minimal time to discuss lifestyle interventions which is often the key for making real progress in one's health.