Frequently Asked Questions
Our Practice
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Functional Medicine is an active partnership between the patient and the practitioner. It offers personalized care through detailed understanding and careful analysis of your medical history and condition. Practitioners get to know the “whole person” and treat the “whole body” and find ALL of the drivers that are manifesting as symptoms to all of your conditions.
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No, Functional Medicine is not for everyone! There are times that a person should see their primary medical professional or even go to the hospital when they need acute medical and/or psychiatric interventions. Functional Medicine is for the person with chronic and/or quality of life issues that are not resolved with standard interventions. It is for the person that is willing to do the work to make specifically recommended changes in their diet and lifestyle.
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Many times, patients come to us with a referral for a certain practitioner, but if you are not sure, we can guide you based on your specific health needs during your free 20-minute consultation call.
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No. Currently the providers at Functional Medicine Collaborative cannot be your PCP.
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In our practice, we see patients who have been to doctor after doctor and come away with few answers and little help. Usually, this is because the practitioner is only looking at one piece of the puzzle. We know that all parts of the body are connected. We take the time to find all of the pieces of the puzzle and figure out how they fit together. We provide the time to figure out WHY you are in distress; often there are multiple layers of issues. We then develop a plan to address each layer.
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The answer to this question depends on the following questions. How long has it been since you felt well? How many different concerns do you have going on right now? Are you willing and able to do the work to create changes? Do you have support at home? How quickly does your body heal? That being said, patients typically report seeing positive changes in their health in about eight weeks.
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Intake Form: You will complete an extensive intake form. Please take your time and give us as detailed information as possible, including dates.
Labs and/or Tests: You do not need to complete any labs or tests prior to your visit with us. Once we meet, we will review any labs you have already completed and determine what testing we may still recommend.
Please send us any labs or specialty testing you have completed in the past two years. Please have your PCP send records of your last physical exam and if you are seeing a psychiatrist, your initial evaluation and last encounter.
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Yes. We are a HIPAA compliant organization that utilizes electronic records. If you need help getting into your account, or sending us documents, please let us know. Item description
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Click on the invite link
Enter the patient's date of birth (mm-dd-yyyy format).
Click on the 'Next' button.
Enter your preferred 'Password' (follow the password instructions shown).
Fill in the CAPTCHA
Accept Charm PHR's privacy policy, terms, and conditions
Click on the 'Submit' button.
Enter the verification code received via email.
Click on the 'Verify OTP' button.
You will also receive a Welcome Mail from Charm with the PHR sign-in link for future use.
Verification & Sign-Up FAQs
A verification error can occur for several reasons. Here are a few common errors and steps to correct them:
How do you avoid delays in the delivery of verification code emails?
OTP requests are time-sensitive. A delay in receiving OTP mails prevents you from verifying your account. To avoid this error, users should whitelist or add noreply@agent1accounts.charmtracker.com as a trusted sender.
How to avoid the 'Signup Verification' code invalid error?
Refreshing the verification window multiple times causes this error. Refreshing the page triggers a new OTP each time, making the previously sent OTPs invalid. Users should avoid refreshing the page or browser and wait for a few minutes.
How to avoid the 'Sign up Verification' code session timeout error?
Your email service provider can categorize verification mails as 'Spam' or 'Junk'. Whitelisting or adding noreply@agent1accounts.charmtracker.com as a trusted sender prevents session timeout errors.
The signup page reloads while switching between browser or tab
This error is prevalent in Android OS or Chrome browsers and is unavoidable. Your page will stop loading once you sign in. Alternatively, use an IOS device or other browsers like Firefox.
For more information on the patient portal click this link:
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Keep in mind that we do not practice emergency medicine. If you have an emergency, please call 911 immediately or go to your nearest emergency room. You are required to have a primary care provider and, in some circumstances, a primary psychiatrist.
If you have a brief question that is specific to your treatment plan, please message us using our patient portal. We tend to respond within hours. Our experience is that the portal is quicker than using the phone, as we end up playing phone tag more often than not. You can access the portal at the top of this page.
If you have more complex questions, then we may need to schedule or move up your appointment so that we can fully address your concerns. Substantial practitioner time responding to questions between sessions will be billed.
Financials
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Appointment costs vary depending on which practitioner you see.
Sally Davidson, ANP
Initial visit: $800
Follow up: $400/hour
Sean Foss, ND
Initial visit: $450
Follow up: $225
Susan Baumgarten and Kimberly Concra
Initial visit: $250
Follow up visit (30 min): $125
Follow up visit (60 min): $250
Acupuncture
Initial visit: $150
Follow up (needles only): $100
Follow up (comprehensive): $150
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Getting to the roots of a person’s health problems requires specialized training, diagnostic tools and extensive clinical experience. In many ways our practitioners have undergone a second medical training, making them uniquely qualified to diagnose chronic and persistent conditions and recommend remedies. You will receive the undivided attention of our practitioners looking at all of your issues and how they are inter-connected in order to provide a comprehensive treatment plan to address each driver. Furthermore, our experience suggests our practitioners dedicate about one and half hours analysis work for every session hour.
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We strongly believe that food is medicine, and much can be done without testing or supplements. This is a partnership, and we encourage you to have a dialogue with us, based on your financial needs. We may need to adjust what we do – and when – based on what works best for you.
Blood work: Please let us know if you do not have good insurance coverage, as some lab work can be costly. If your insurance requires that orders only be written by in-network providers, sometimes the PCP is willing to order them.
Functional Medicine Lab Tests: We offer state of the art specialty testing. You will pay the specialty testing company directly for these tests. Some insurance companies may cover part of the cost.
Supplements: Not always necessary as we believe that food is medicine. However, supplements do allow people to make improvements faster. They can serve as a bridge to health while you learn what needs to be changed in your diet and lifestyle and create lasting habits. If you are currently taking supplements, we try to utilize these, providing they will meet your specific needs. Otherwise, we will make suggestions for you.
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We always want our patients to know that they are in the driver’s seat. This is your wellness journey, and it is not a race. You can decide what pace is comfortable, but you will also need to adjust your expectations.
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Insurance policies vary greatly and we cannot know what part of our service, if any, your insurance will cover. We will provide each patient with a receipt that is called a “superbill” by the insurance industry. You can submit this superbill to your particular insurance carrier and, in most cases, there is some benefit available to you for out-of-network care. It is your responsibility to know what your out-of-network benefits are.
We thought long and hard about accepting insurance. Insurance pays for acute episodic or sick care – putting out fires and suppressing symptoms. It often does not pay for chronic care with the ultimate goal of obtaining wellness. Most conventional doctors and NPs see 3-5 patients in an hour. We devote a great deal of time before, during and after the sessions. Insurance often does not pay for the time it takes practitioners to elucidate the drivers and root causes of your symptoms.
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No. In order to keep costs down we are a lean practice operating at a bare minimum of administrative support. We do not offer financing due to the administrative overhead this requires.
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Most people are able to use their HSA accounts successfully. Please check with your company.