“Can I use my insurance?”

This is often the first question a patient will ask when seeking out medical care. And we know why. We all spend a lot of our own money on health insurance. We want you to be able to use your health insurance to reduce any of your possible medical expenses. As State of Washington, Department of Health licensed professionals, we are one of the few weight loss practices where you can use your health insurance benefits. 

Year after year we all pay higher monthly premiums, higher co-pays, and are seeing high deductibles—commonly $2,000+. Many of us can’t afford to go to the doctor. The whole system feels, well, broken.

If one does get sick and has to visit the doctor, usually for a prescription, the process starts with fewer choices for care. And there will be a co-pay. And then another bill from your doctor for the balance that the insurance company didn’t pay. And to make it even worse, If we haven’t met our deductible the bill will be for the entire amount. Ouch. 

Here’s how we, the medical providers, feel about insurance: 

We often wait up to six months to get paid a small percentage of what we submitted for payment months earlier. In the meantime, we must pay staff, rent, taxes, insurances, and utilities. We actually hire extra staff whose sole purpose is to try to get paid so that we can keep our doors open. Guess who ends up paying for all this? As with any businesses, one way or the other, it’s you. The consumer. 

A consumer? Yes. A consumer of healthcare. But, in the traditional insurance model, the consumer has little or no way to participate in choices or to understand what they’re really paying for.

We would like to change that.  

“So, can I use my Insurance?”   

With Three Health you can. Just a little differently than you’ve done in the past. We use a cash pay model. Which simply means you pay for our services when rendered. But in this model, you file the claim with your insurance company, and you get reimbursed directly. 

We provide you with a ‘super bill’ with the very same CPT coding that we would submit to your insurance company. We assist you in submitting the super bill to your insurance company for reimbursement.

Here is how you will come out ahead with the cash pay model.

Credit. As a fully accredited healthcare provider, claims can be applied to your out-of-network deductibles.

Tax Savings. You can use your HSA account to access tax-free funds dedicated to general healthcare services. 

Lower Costs. By eliminating extra costs to our practice we can package our services to you for less money. 

No co-pays. You will not be asked for a co-pay every time you you have an appointment with us. Remember, co-pays do not apply to your deductibles with the health insurance company. They are cash out of your pocket.

Telemedicine. This is a big one. We have the secure technology in place to provide you with expert care via the internet. This saves time. A lot of time. Time you’d normally spend getting here. Time in our waiting area. Time with the provider. And time to get back home.  

Time. We can give you, the patient, more face-to-face time. For the health insurance model to be financially viable, one medical provider needs to see 30 patients a day on average. That’s about four to six minutes per patient. That’s not good for anyone. Your provider should take the time to listen to you, answer questions, and make you feel like a person. Not a commodity.

Discounts. We offer our on-going cash-pay patients discounts for our services, biometric testing, and products. We can do this when we don’t have to wait month after month for single visits billed to the insurance company to be reimbursed. 

So, in addition to great care, we’ve created a model based on many years of experience and innovative thinking where you, the consumer, actually come out ahead for a change.

Questions? Just ask. Truly, we are in this together. 

Call us at 425-606-0022 for more information.

By Bradley Butterfield, LMHCA

The Team at Three Health