faq
Clinic Policies
Can Doctor Glow Be My Primary Care Provider?
No. Dr. Glow works as a functional medicine consultant in conjunction with your current health care team and is not considered a replacement for your primary care physician. She requires all new patients to have a primary care physician to cover emergencies and routine care and screening.
You are required to have a primary care clinician on file with our office when you enroll as a patient.
Do you see out of state and nationwide clients?
Yes – Our office is currently in Boulder, CO. To establish care you we ask you to schedule one visit per year in person and we can then continue care virtually.
What are the Accepted Forms of Payment?
We accept cash, checks, credit cards, FSA and HSA cards. We do not accept insurance, nor do we bill insurance or prepare HCFA forms for you. However, we will furnish you with an itemized bill for self-submission if you are seen in the office. For our Medicare patients: Since we do not accept Medicare in our office, all services, including mail away specialty lab tests, are self-pay. You will not be able to submit any bill to Medicare for reimbursement from them for any services you encounter in our office by any of our providers.
What is Your Cancellation/Rescheduling Policy
Appointment cancellation and rescheduling: When you call and schedule an appointment, time is reserved especially for you and no one else.
Since the appointments are much longer than standard office visits, cancellations are significant interruptions to the Clinic.
Thus, a minimum of 72 hours notice is required for rescheduling of ROOTS ASSESSMENT (new patient visits) and 48 hours notice for established patients within the Thrive Membership.
We also require that all new patients complete and return their new patient paperwork no later than 7 days prior to your appointment.
In the event a patient misses an appointment (No Show) or fails to notify the office within the above time-frame, there will be a $300.00 non-refundable charge applied to the credit card on file with the practice.
If the new patient paperwork is not received 7 days prior to the appointment, we will reschedule the appointment.
Once purchased, there are NO REFUNDS for Roots Assessments.
What are Your Emergencies and After-hours Care?
Emergencies, after-hours care, disability requests: Because our doctors are Functional Medicine consultants, you must have a primary care doctor with whom you can consult in the event of an emergency or urgent problem. If you have a serious health problem that requires immediate attention, you should call your other doctors(s), call 911, or have someone take you to the nearest hospital emergency room. If you notice an adverse effect from one of the components of your health plan developed by one of our doctors you should discontinue it immediately and contact our office. Please note that because we are not primary providers, we do not complete disability or workers’ compensation forms for patients.
How do I Get in Touch With You For Questions or Concerns?
We encourage patients to use the patient portal to message us with questions regarding their treatment plan. If there is a need for longer discussion regarding new symptoms or new concerns, then we recommend you schedule an additional follow-up appointment. Questions that require longer than 5-minute responses fit this scenario.
Additionally, if it has been longer than 8 weeks since your last appointment, schedule an appointment rather than a portal message.
Do You Offer Telehealth Education Services?
In order to establish a doctor/patient relationship with us, you must see us in our office in person at least once per year. After that, if you are interested in conducting some or all of your remaining patient visits through online telehealth, we can offer you that service. If you do not see us in our office in person at least once each year, there will not be a doctor/patient relationship between us and you. Instead, our communications with you will be for educational purposes only. We call these communications “Telehealth/education services”. These services we provide to you will consist of information and suggestions that are intended to assist you and your health care provider in using natural means to support your health. Telehealth/education services are not intended to serve as a medical diagnosis or treatment of any kind. Our fees for telehealth/education services are the same as the fees that we charge for our office visits. Please note that medical insurance does not cover telehealth/education services. You will be responsible for paying for all telehealth/education services yourself. We do not refund any amounts paid for telehealth/education services.
Will There Be Lab Testing?
Our clinic frequently uses specialty testing. These are usually an out-of-pocket expense. Occasionally, there is some insurance coverage. We will guide you through identifying the costs associated with your testing.
Are there risks associated with treatment or any guarantees?
There are risks and benefits associated with all different types of treatment. There may be additional or alternative treatments available. You are encouraged to ask questions if you would like additional information. Although your plan will be thoroughly researched and will be customized to your unique health status and your personal goals, no guarantees can be assured regarding the outcomes of treatment(s) or procedure(s).
Financial Policy
An Explanation of Our Financial Policy
I operate as a Functional/Integrative Medicine Consultant. My unique approach to whole health requires 90-minute office visits that are not reimbursed by insurance companies. Please read the explanations below and if you still have further questions, feel free to contact the office for more information.
Do You Take Insurance?
No. Functional Medicine consultation services may or may not be covered by your insurance plan. Please check with your insurance prior to your visit. Our office does not bill your insurance directly but we will give you a receipt for services, which you may submit for reimbursement. We are not a participating provider in Medicaid or Medicare.
See more information under the “why we don’t accept insurance” drop-down section.
Do You Take Medicaid or Medicare?
No. We are not a participating provider in Medicaid or Medicare.
Why Do We Not Accept Insurance?
When clinics bill insurance companies directly, doctors are required to become participating providers. The doctors must sign a contract that allows the insurance company to determine which services they will and will not provide, and how much they can charge for those services. In general, insurance companies are not focused on any preventative or wellness services. They are heavily invested in the conventional model of health care that too often relies on drugs and surgery and attempting to fix problems instead of prevent them in the first place. We are committed to the functional medicine model that addresses the underlying causes of your symptoms with specific nutritional and lifestyle recommendations. In addition, the Mind-Body Medicine and Bioenergetic Medicine Services are not typically covered under most insurance plans.
A participating provider must agree to accept the fees the insurance company establishes, regardless of whether the fees are reasonable or applicable to that practice. In general, these established fees cover the actual cost of the briefest (and we believe the lowest quality) care. In the insurance model, doctors typically spend 7-15 minutes with a patient. In our clinic, you will spend 45-90 minutes with your physician. This type of personalized medicine is not supported by our current insurance model and insurance will not pay for these types of visits. In addition, as mainstream medicine and insurance are typically 17 to 20 years behind in the research–the specialized, advanced laboratory tests offered to you in this clinic are often not typically covered by the insurance companies either.
Unfortunately patients get caught up in the middle of this archaic insurance/conventional medicine model, making one choose between Insurance reimbursed extremely brief office visits in other medical practices, or non-insurance reimbursed care with a functional medicine practitioner who takes the time needed to get to the root cause of the individualized situation.
Unfortunately, it is impossible for this practice to participate in insurance networks and provide the time-intensive, well-researched, expert care that you will receive here at Symptoms to Soulutions.
Why Do We Charge for Follow-Up Consultations?
Some patients have asked why we charge for follow-up consultations regarding lab results and exams, as well as for telephone consultations.
In follow-up visits, significant time is devoted to discussing your results with you. For example, it is relatively simple to inform a patient that they suffer from esophageal reflux and give them a prescription medication but it is entirely different to discuss the results of more complex functional evaluations and to recommend practical lifestyle and dietary strategies that may help to prevent the reflux. We want you to understand that preventative health care takes considerable time and expertise on the part of the doctor. As hours are spent in review of your case and formulation of integrative and holistic health plans at each visit; this is a labor-intensive process and requires much time and energy on the part of the clinician. This is why we’ve created memberships and programs. The cost can be divided into monthly installments which offsets typical fee-for-service office pricing.
Can You Tell Me More About the Charges for the Doctors Services?
Some patients may not understand our office pricing policy and have the mistaken impression that the doctor takes home the majority of the fees we charge for their services. The doctor takes home only a fraction of the fees collected for services. This is because a Functional/Integrative practice requires trained staff and very expensive professional continuing education. The majority of our fees support the overall mission of providing high-quality natural health care, not the doctorsʼ paychecks. The doctor has chosen this work because it is their passion and their calling, and certainly not because it is a way to make a lucrative income. In fact, most medical doctors who choose to practice functional medicine know that their income will be substantially lower than it would be if they were practicing in a more conventional manner that is fully supported by the health care reimbursement system. In addition, hours are spent in preparing for your visit, reviewing your labs and history and formulating an integrative and holistic health plan for you at each visit. We practice this type of medicine because we are committed to bringing the most well-researched and cutting edge personalized medicine that we can deliver to our patients and we keep up to the date with the research on a continual and ongoing basis. This practice is a labor of love.
Why Do We Sell or Recommend Supplements?
We recommend nutritional supplements as an adjunct to dietary and lifestyle modification. This approach is central to the well-researched and science-based practice of functional medicine, which all of our professional staff have studied. We recommend high-quality nutritional products from the top nutritional research laboratories in North America and with the exception of a few products in our inventory, patients are generally referred to online dispensaries to purchase the products with direct shipping to their homes. I recommend only products that I have vetted, used, and trust. I will always recommend diet and lifestyle modifications first and supplements only as needed.
I would love to be your partner along your journey towards vibrant health! If you have more questions, please reach out at info@SymptomstoSoulutions.com.
Now accepting a limited-number of new patients!
If you reside outside of Tennessee, Illinois or Colorado, you may consult with Dr. Glow as long as your first visit is in-person in her new Knoxville, TN office. The following appointments for the entire year may be virtual.