Please read our clinic policies below. To book an appointment, you must agree to the terms.
Insurance
The Complex Autonomic Center regrettably does not take commercial or government health insurance. We apologize for this inconvenience. The current health insurance reimbursement model does not support a sustainable medical care for many complex and overlapping illnesses. The complex nature of autonomic disorders often goes beyond a single illness and often requires further additional patient time that is not reimbursed.
We do not directly submit charges to private insurance companies however; we can (upon request) provide you with a superbill of charges that can be used by you to submit to your private insurance for possible partial reimbursement.
The Complex Autonomic Center does not participate in any federal, state or government, Medicare or Medicaid programs without exception. We kindly ask you to visit other local clinics who do work with these programs.
Clinic Agreement
The focus of this clinic is to help you with long term management of these problems. Chronic complex illnesses often have severe and disabling symptoms with frequent exacerbations. If you develop new or different symptoms it is highly recommend that you see your primary physician first to evaluate for other possible unrelated problems.
If you are having a flare of your symptoms you may contact this clinic via patient portal and we can triage your case. If you are concerned about your symptoms then we recommend calling 911 or go to the nearest Emergency Department or urgent care facility.
Visit Fees
Fees are based on typical time spent in the visit, and can include reviewing medical records, labs, preparing chart notes with assessment and treatments. Fees are comparable to other similar clinics through the country.
New Patient Consultation
Please prepare carefully for your visit since the majority of the visit is focused on data collection, pertinent information analysis of your illness. This takes considerable time and a very useful method is to document your illness in a timeline. This can be sequenced in a 1-3 page summary for review. It is inefficient for you to provide repeating lab results, imaging reports that are not pertinent to your case. These can be summarized with date and results. Hospitalization notes are also very inefficient and might contain +100 pages of redundant data. Providing us with +1000 pages for your visit is not useful time management.
Much of the time during the initial visit will be spent on data collection, analysis of your illnesses, formulation diagnostic impression, work up and providing a summary with management plan. Typical time spent on cases is 2 hours. Simpler cases may be less.
Follow-up Consultation Appointment
We encourage follow up visits with 2-4 months after the initial appointment. During this visit we will go over in detail your studies, lab results, and treatment response and further diagnoses and management recommendation. This typically takes approximately 60-90 minutes, greater if more complex illness.
Existing Patient/Non-Compete Patients
The Complex Autonomic Center is an independent medical practice from other autonomic clinics in the area and not affiliated with other medical hospital systems. If you are already an established patient from another autonomic clinic on the Eastside you are considered a new patient to this clinic and all new patient polices agreement are applied.
Preparing for Visit
To make your visit effective and because of the complex nature of these illnesses seen here, we recommend uploading specific information to the HIPPA secure electronic medical chart https://atlas.md/
These include the following (if and when available)
- Laboratory Studies
- Cardiology Consultations and records
- Genetic Consultations and records
- Rheumatology Consultation and records
- Neurology consultation and records
- Gastroenterology consultations and record
- Allergy Consultation and records
- Imaging reports, biopsy reports or other specialized studies.
Payment
We require payment in full 1 week prior to your scheduled visit.
For other follow up visits, payment is due in full at time of service. Scheduling an appointment requires an active credit card on file.
Guarantee
We cannot guarantee that your health will improve as a result of our care. Despite medical research there is no cure for many of the illnesses seen in this clinic including POTS, EDSh, fatigue, or MCAS. We strive to define your diagnosis and help you with management. With this in mind, we do not provide refunds for our services.
Telemedicine Policies
We offer telemedicine visits billed at the same rate as in-person visits. This form of healthcare delivery offers certain advantages such as travel time and convenience. Telemedicine visits will be billed at the same rate as in-person visits.
If you choose to use this service you should understand and agree to the following:
Telemedicine visits are billed at the same rate as in-person visits.
There is a small risk for data breach using this form of technology. We use crypted technology that minimizes this risk.
There are some limitations using this technology such as parts of the physical examination or vital signs.
If you reside in another state (excluding WA, OR) for a telemedicine visit Washington state requires you to be anywhere within the jurisdiction of Washington state.
