Offering Urgent Care/ Same Day Care
It all began with an idea on how to improve access to healthcare
Hello! My name is Jalayne Faulhaber, and I am the nurse practitioner here at Foundation Health and Wellness. Thank you for taking the time to read this blog as we hope this is something that is informational for you. We are excited to launch our new practice and we are excited to offer same day urgent visits!! We've had a lot of questions about same day/ urgent visits and why we don’t take insurance- read on to find answers to those questions and learn more information on this awesome service.
Why same day visits?
Unfortunately, our healthcare system is strained and most people are unable to get into their primary care provider within a few days, and in some instances even wait more than a month. We are here to provide care for those times when you can’t wait to be seen. We can evaluate and treat strep throat, cold and flu like symptoms, sinus infections, ear pain, wax removal, urinary tract infections, skin infections, skin abscess, pink eye, shingles, gout, dog bites, back pain, sprains and strains, rashes, minor burns, bites & stings, sexually transmitted infections (STD’s/STI’s), medication refill (no narcotics), and other urgent illnesses. Currently, we are not offering COVID-PCR testing due to the many different costs associated with Covid-PCR testing and it’s important to us to keep the costs down for you. If you have a positive home or other out-patient test, we can treat you with the required medications. Paxlovid is the home treatment for COVID-19 and we are able to prescribe this if the criteria are met.
Is this an Urgent Care?
While we are not an official urgent care, we do offer urgent services that are usually not managed by primary care offices. Most primary care offices are not able to do procedures such as stitches (sutures) or performing and incision and drainage of an abscess. This is the benefit of having an emergency medicine background! We do not have onsite X-ray and we do not perform EKG’s. If we are concerned about a possible fracture or pneumonia, we can send you to have an X-ray. If you are sent for other services, you can use your insurance at these facilities as you typically would. As the ER’s and urgent care facilities continue to face overcrowding and long wait times, we are here to help get you seen in a timely manner while minimizing your risk of being around people with other illnesses. There may be times that we feel you would be better served in an emergency room, and we will be sure to discuss this with you.
Why don’t we take insurance?
We have chosen not to take insurance because it is important for us to be able to take time with you, the patient, rather than focusing on insurance. If you're unaware of how insurance reimbursement works, I'll give you a small little tidbit of information on this subject. With insurance, there is quite a bit of documentation that is required for them to reimburse. Unfortunately, this requires health care providers to spend so much time with documentation that they must sacrifice time with you as the patient. This often leads to people feeling like they weren’t heard, or maybe their needs weren’t addressed, or perhaps they don’t receive all the discharge instructions that would’ve been helpful. We have specifically designed our rates to be not much more than that of an urgent care visit. In most cases it's less than an emergency room copay. The goal is to have you seen in a timely fashion so you can go back to living your life. We would like to provide you with an example regarding the difference in copay and the value of your time:
If you have a $75 copay at urgent care and say you are concerned you may have a urinary tract infection, you may have to wait 4 hours to be seen. While waiting, you may be sitting in a crowded waiting room with people coughing and other illnesses around you. What have you lost during those 4 hours? How much money? Did you have to leave work? Did you have to pay a babysitter? Are you worried about who will take kids to their sports activities? The goal here at Foundation Health and Wellness is to have you seen in a timely manner and get you back to living your life. You may have to wait 4 hours for your appointment, however during the time that you were waiting you are able to be at work still making money, or be at home with your children, or doing other activities that may need to be done. In short, not missing out on your regular life. While the cost may be a little more than your typical copay the goal is that you're able to make up more than what you paid by going back to your regular life.
Even though the Affordable Care Act made insurance accessible to everyone, there are still many who do not have insurance. There are also many people on a high deductible plan and never reach their maximum out-of-pocket. This is an affordable alternative to going to an urgent care or emergency department. The cost of healthcare increases when using insurance due to reimbursement rates, etc. Often people with high deductible insurance end up paying the insurance negotiated rate rather than the self-pay rate. We’ve taken out the middleman and you pay one fee with no hidden additional costs! We can generate a Superbill so you can submit this to your insurance. They will often apply this to your high deductible. For those with a co-pay, they may reimburse you some of the visit. This is not a guarantee, and we aren’t able to file anything on your behalf, but we are happy to provide you with the detailed bill.
What are your hours and how can I schedule?
Currently we have set daily hours, but we are continuously evaluating what hours would best serve our community. We are willing to have days where we come in at 7:00 AM so you can be seen prior to going to work and we will have other days where we stay late so you can be seen after work. We will not be closed during lunch hours, which will allow you to schedule during your lunch break. We also have the option of membership which will allow members to contact us through the portal and let us know if they need an after-hours visit. For instance, if it’s 7:00pm and you cut your hand while making dinner, you can contact us and if we are available, we will meet you at the office to care for you. We will do everything we can to have seen that same day if needed, which is one of our many benefits of membership.
We hope this helps answer any questions you have regarding same day visits and self-pay. We have a great line- up for future blogs, but we’d love to hear from you on topics you’d like to know more about. Be sure to follow us on Instagram and Facebook to see more about our specials and educational reels.