FAQs
Direct
Primary
Care
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We’ve likely answered them below. If not, feel free to contact us!
Harvest Health MD/Direct Primary Care
Direct Primary Care (DPC) is an old-school take on new-school medicine. It is a membership-based model of healthcare where instead of paying for your medical care through insurance, you pay your doctor directly to provide care for you. You receive all the benefits of modern healthcare such as tele-medicine visits, increased convenience, and personalized care – without the downsides of all the reasons you hate going to the doctor (long wait times, 7 to 10-minute visits, and expensive co-pays).
We like to call Direct Primary Care (DPC) concierge medicine for the middle and working class. The distinct difference between DPC and Concierge Medicine is that concierge medicine charges a premium for access to your doctor, but also bills insurance for your coverage as well. In most cases, Direct Primary Care providers have the same access at a lower price point with the same convenience and quality care for an affordable price – without billing insurance.
Harvest Health MD is unique because we are the first Direct Primary Care office located on the Southside/Midtown area of Savannah, Georgia. In addition, we have a unique focus on holistic medicine – more specifically health and fitness and plant-based nutrition. These intentional lifestyle approaches have been shown to improve overall health. Lastly, Harvest Health MD is the only black-owned Direct Primary Care in Savannah, Georgia – which is a majority African-American city. Why does it matter? African-Americans have been shown to have disproportionately worse healthcare outcomes, reduced access to medical care, and general mistrust of the medical system. Studies have shown that when patients have a doctor who looks like them health outcomes improve and the patients are more engaged in their care. With that being said, Harvest Health MD will take care of all patients who are a good fit for our practice regardless of age, race, sex, sexual orientation, and income status.
Membership Pricing and Fees
Healthcare is one of the only industries we know where neither the consumer nor the person providing the service knows what anything costs. Thus, through our membership fee and transparent pricing you know exactly what services you are receiving and paying for.
Most visits are included in your general membership fee. Additional fees apply for home visits or other specialty visits. This can be discussed on a case by case basis.
Yes, we perform routine office-based procedures. Most procedures that do not require new disposable equipment or materials that we already have in stock will be at no additional charge. Additional fees may apply for processing of tissue samples. All of these fees will be determined prior to the procedure.
You are billed for services at the end of every month. Payments can be processed via credit card or bank draw. We prefer ACH withdrawal due to there being less delays in processing, issues with expired credit cards, etc.
Simply put, no. We are committed to providing you with transparent pricing. In the event that fees arise that were unexpected, we will work together to come to a resolution.
There are two ways to save money on membership fees. Paying for your membership on an annual basis. Referring unrelated patients to the practice that successfully sign up.
Accounts will typically be charged on the 1st, 15th, or 25th of every month.
We are comfortable with routine female wellness exams and strive to make the environment comfortable and inviting. We do not practice obstetric care.
We see children ages 2 and over. This is likely to expand in the near future.
Everyone can benefit from a membership with Harvest Health MD. With a focus on prevention and lifestyle improvement, I am sure that we can find a way to improve your health and make positive lifestyle choices as well as keep you accountable.
It depends on the patient. Generally, if something requires a physical exam, if you are going to need new medication, or if it is a new/acute problem we recommend setting up an in person appointment. If this is a short interval follow-up, medication refill, or simply a few questions this can be done by email, virtually via video conference, or over the phone.
We contract with and have access to specialist care virtually when necessary. We are currently building relationships with local physicians in the case that a patient needs to be referred out.
Yes, we are available for urgent issues after hours. Upon your enrollment, we will provide guidance on what issues are appropriate for after hours contact.
Pre existing condition = insurance term. We in the medical community call that your medical history. That will not be held against you. With that said, some patients with certain medical history may need unique care that we may not provide. We will work together with you to explore this or help point you in the right direction.
Yes. Once you have established a doctor patient relationship, we will do the best to meet your needs regardless of where you are in the world.
No. As long as you are able to pay your monthly membership fee consistently, we are able to take care of you.
Membership Cancellations
You may cancel your service via email or by phone after speaking to your doctor. We do this to keep the line of communication open and to learn how to best serve our patients. Membership must be cancelled prior to the close of the monthly billing cycle. Services will conclude thereafter.
It is up to physician discretion. We may provide up to 2-weeks worth of prescriptions until you can find another physician.
This is at the discretion of the physician and must be discussed with him/her directly. Re-enrollment will be determined on a case by case basis. There is a $150 re-enrollment fee.
Visits
Monday-Friday 9:00am to 5:00pm EST. These hours may be subject to change depending on the needs of the community and our staff. Visits after-hours can be accommodated for members on certain days based on necessity.
Visits are usually between 30 and 60-minutes depending on your needs or concerns for the visit. If longer visits are needed, this may be subject to scheduling requirements – but do not cost more.
You can schedule an appointment online or just call the office. We aim to make this as easy as possible.
Home visits will be considered on a case by case basis. Extra fees will apply.
Generally, no. However, we do have the availability for same-day and next-day visits via appointment for established members.
No, unfortunately. We elect to provide care for patients that we have established a patient-doctor relationship with. Harvest Health MD believes that this is the hallmark of medicine and allows for the strongest of therapeutic relationships. Oftentimes (1) visit at an urgent care can equate to the cost of at least (2) months of service from our medical office, so if you believe you have a medical issue that you may have to deal with continually it may be in your best interest to join and become a member at Harvest Health MD.
That is perfectly fine. Harvest Health MD is still a great solution for you. As a true primary care office, we are focused on prevention. Many times people will wait until it is too late to seek medical care. Imagine if you had the opportunity to stop diabetes before it started? Or if you were educated on ways to improve your lifestyle that could help prevent you from developing diseases? Or when you did develop a health issue – you had your personal doctor that is willing and ready to take care of you? We offer care that promotes your on-going health and well-being with the overall goal to prevent disease, disability, and death.
Moreover with the focus on health and fitness and plant-based nutrition, we provide our members with information to improve general fitness, health and diet which by itself adds significant value.
After the initial 10-minutes of your scheduled visit has elapsed you will be rescheduled. It is our intention to provide you with excellent care and we would not want to short change your experience.
If you missed a visit, you should reschedule your visit. If you have more than three no-calls no-shows, you may want to reconsider if this practice is the right fit for you.
Please cancel visits within 48-hours of your scheduled appointment. We understand that things will come emergently that are unforeseen, if that is the case, please notify us as soon as possible.
If you need to go to the hospital you will be cared for by the admitting team, hospitalist or your specialist. Our physician currently does not have privileges at the local hospitals. We hope to minimize, if not eliminate, the need to go to the hospital by providing preventative care as well as providing health and fitness care. We are able to stay in contact during these difficult times and are committed to being a resource to helping you navigate the healthcare system.
Employer Membership
Yes, we offer employer pricing at a reduced rate. Please refer to the member and services page for further detail. Direct primary care has been shown to reduce employee absenteeism, promote general health, and increase overall employee satisfaction.
Insurance
Harvest Health MD will take care of the patients regardless of insurance status. As stated, we do not charge your insurance company for medical care. If you are able to afford our monthly fee, you receive medical care, it is that simple.
DPC is not insurance and therefore is not an appropriate substitute. Moreover, we would advise that every individual have a minimum catastrophic health insurance to cover unexpected hospitalizations and diagnoses that could potentially cause financial ruin. DPC is also an option for people who are uninsured/underinsured or for individuals who desire the benefits of affordable, transparent, high-quality, convenient medical care. With that being said, we are not financial advisors, benefits counselors, insurance brokers, or lawyers and we recommend that your insurance decisions be discussed with those respective parties.
Harvest Health MD is not insurance. We in the direct primary care field always recommend that people have catastrophic health insurance to help offset the costs of emergency care or life-threatening/altering diagnosis. However, direct primary care does end up becoming a viable option for people who are middle-income and cannot afford health insurance, people who have high-deductible health plans with out-of-pocket expenses that are more than our yearly membership fee, as well as small business employers looking for an affordable health solution for their employees.
Yes, you can become a member of Harvest Health MD if you have insurance. However, you cannot and should not submit insurance claims for your membership fee. In many cases patients with insurance have been able to use their insurance to pay for medications, bloodwork, and imaging. The benefit of direct primary care is that we often beat copay prices with a direct-pay relationship.
Generally, there will be no changes or extra barriers to traditional visits to other doctor’s offices, hospitals, and pharmacies. There may be variations to our ability to order medications, labs and imaging depending if your plan is PPO vs HMO.
This is best discussed with your benefits counselor and your accountant. We have noted that patients with high deductible health plans/catastrophic insurance have significant costs when it comes to medical expenses. Direct primary care has been able to reduce the out-of-pocket cost for medical care significantly.
Medicaid: We do not contract with any Medicaid plans and therefore do not bill them for our services. You are still welcomed to join Harvest Health MD – but may need to have a primary care doctor that accepts Medicaid to access other medicaid benefits and services.
Medicare: We currently do not see patients with Medicare coverage at Harvest Health MD, but if you are interested in joining please call and leave your information. When we begin seeing patients with Medicare we will not bill Medicare directly so you will still be responsible for your membership fee. You will need to sign a one-time waiver declaring that neither Harvest Health MD nor you will directly bill (or submit reimbursement to) Medicare for our services. Medicare may still cover any laboratory testing, imaging and medications ordered by our office.
It depends. If you are submitting claims for our membership fee, then the answer is no. For non-covered service fees (labs, imaging, qualifying procedures, etc.) Harvest Health MD can provide a receipt of payment for submission to insurance.
Not at this time. This topic is pending legislation. Please contact an accounting or legal professional to discuss the pros and cons.
Special Topics
We believe in vaccinations but do not currently offer them in office. Do not worry, we would not recommend anything that we were not willing to take ourselves. Vaccines can be administered by the health department and in some cases pharmacies. We will work together to find a solution to make sure that everyone is appropriately vaccinated.
We currently do not administer vaccines in office.
We may explore alternate modalities to help with pain relief but not in the traditional sense. We do not believe in just prescribing and refilling narcotic medications.
Not for chronic medical issues. If there is an acute problem that is substantiated by evidence, we may explore this but only on a case by case basis. Our ultimate goal is to de-prescribe narcotics when appropriate and find other solutions to help augment pain.
