A Guide to Holistic Health Care Costs

One of the first questions any person considering doing holistic health care wants to know is how much will this cost?

This is a difficult question to answer, but I will try my best to explain some general guidelines.

What Are You Paying For?

Medical costs can be challenging to predict but can still be estimated within a range. This is because you are buying a specific service, such as surgery, diagnostic procedure, or examination/consultation. However, if you seek medical care for a chronic health problem, treatment will usually consist of managing symptoms with long-term pharmaceuticals.

At my clinic, you are paying for a corrective program to assist your body to become healthier and heal from your health problems. The program is entirely individualized and comprehensive. Most patients have twice-weekly visits for the first two months or more and are on active programs at my clinic for at least six months to a year. This program has the goals of restored health, stabilized health, and the ability of the patient to maintain their health from now on.

Your treatment program’s length and the intensity of treatment required to get results are affected by:

• Your age
• Your relative health
• The severity of your health problems
• How long you’ve had your health problems
• Your genetics
• Your environment (level of stress in your life)
• Your ability to eat a healthy diet
• Your ability to consistently do your program (come to visits, take supplements) and any limitations on your resources (time and finance) that would significantly limit your program.

Money and Health

Health is so important. Without it, you’re likely to experience reduced productivity, ability to help yourself and others, and thus your overall happiness. However, you still must make the correct financial decisions for your situation.

Improved health can often lead to improved finances. You can work more productively if you have good energy, good mental acuity and aren’t distracted by your body issues.

Using only insurable health care can cost more. Even with good insurance, years of copays and deductibles can amount to many times the total cost of a holistic program that could have addressed causes and ended your health problem.

It costs far less to end a health problem than to treat and manage it for the rest of your life.

Money doesn’t have to stop you from getting well.

I’ve worked with many patients whose health problems have them extremely stressed in multiple areas of their lives. These patients often have very limited finances. I know that they are easily overwhelmed until they feel better and are more stable.

In cases like this, it is often best for the patient to pay each visit and keep their expenses within a comfortable range. I’ve helped thousands of patients get their health back even though they “couldn’t afford it.” I work with them to gradually improve their health at a speed they can afford.

If you feel that you might have a similar problem with finances, communicate about it when you visit us for an initial evaluation. If you are determined to get well, we can usually work together and figure it out.

Alternative Health Atlanta Pricing Information

As explained, many factors affect the cost of a treatment program. My policy is that patients should always know “how much and how long” before starting any part of a treatment program with me.

At your initial visit, I gather enough information to estimate the finances for the first level of your program (about seven weeks). You will be fully informed of the expected finances as well as all aspects of your program before you start it.

After the first program level, you will have a reevaluation visit where we work out the best possible program for continuing your treatment, taking all factors into consideration.

You will always know as much as possible regarding the future cost and time for your program.

Level I: Turnaround Level (First 5 to 7 Weeks)

This level begins with a patient’s initial visit. The goal of the Level is a patient whose health is turned around and improving; subjectively and objectively, there’s no doubt that this person has gone from getting worse to now getting better.

The Turnaround Level usually takes about a month and one half. I treat the patient intensively during this time, as it’s much more challenging to turn a situation around 180° than to keep it going once it’s already improving.

NOTE: It’s surprising to many people that a patient whose health has been getting worse for decades can begin to improve their health in a matter of weeks. I’ve seen this occur thousands of times, to the point that I now expect it. This is a function of how the body is designed and its ability to heal, not any “miracle treatment” that I could do (sadly, there’s no such thing as “miracle treatments”).

Another essential action I do during the Turnaround Level is to continue to gather information on the cause of my patient’s condition. I perform weekly testing at visits as well as functional lab testing. By the end of this Level, I often have enough information to put together a strategic plan to get the patient through to the Wellness Level (where they can maintain their own health with little assistance from me).

Cost Breakdown for Turnaround Level (First 5 to 7 Weeks of a Program):

With intensive treatment, lab tests, and diet consulting, the first Level of a program is the most expensive per week. Once your body is improving, costs are far less and more flexible.

SERVICES:

• Acupressure: $95 per treatment (Treatments to eliminate sensitivities and balance hormones)
• Doctor Testing & Consultation: $75 – $150 per visit, depending on the length of the visit (At these visits, the doctor adjusts supplements, does lab consults and applies the findings, consults on diet and lifestyle, and adjusts the Acupressure program)

FUNCTIONAL LAB TESTING: Labs vary in price from less than $50 to as much as $600. Each patient needs a different set of labs, based on testing, current conditions and health history.

Functional labs are tests of blood, urine, saliva, hair, and stool. At your initial visit, I test and determine the main areas of stress, so I can target these labs to only the areas I need more information about. This reduces the lab expense compared to typical functional medicine practices by more than half. Children generally require much less lab testing.

Functional labs are crucial do discovering the causes of health problems so that the body can be assisted to heal. These labs make the difference between only reducing physical stress on the body for symptom improvement and a full, correction of the problem for stable, good health.

SUPPLEMENTS: $15 to $90 per week.

The supplements I recommend are designed for use by health care professionals and are very different from the vitamins sold in health food stores. By supplying your supplements at the clinic, I can maintain strict control over what you are taking to prevent mistakes, counterfeits, and expired products often sold on the internet. I fully warrant all my supplements if there is any defect or if a patient doesn’t tolerate a product well.

Level II: Healing Level (Six to Nine Months)

Once the Turnaround Level is complete, I should have a patient who has progressed from worsening to improving. A body that can improve is prepared to start healing. During the next level, I work to accomplish substantial healing. With many patients, Level II will stabilize their case to where I only need to continue them on monthly visits and supplementation.

Level II typically take one to two cellular healing cycles (a cellular healing cycle is about 12 weeks). Severe cases can take longer.

There are several possible approaches to Level II.

Once the patient is already improving, I can slow a program down or speed it up because the patient will continue to get better. I can get the patient to a Wellness Program more quickly if time and resources are available or over a longer time if the patient needs to move more slowly.

There are limitations to possible program adjustments that vary by the patient’s condition.

FOLLOW-UP LABS:

As a patient heals, follow-up labs objectively measure progress, changes, and causes for stress. Correct use of labs saves time and money by ensuring a patient is doing the most efficient treatment program and taking the most appropriate supplements.

Labs are needed at different times, which tends to spread them out. The labs can be purchased within a time frame (usually about a month), allowing the patient to work the cost into their finances. A typical lab costs between a low of $50 to a high of $600. Most are on the lower end of this scale.

WELLNESS PROGRAM:

Once your health has improved and is stable, you are graduated to a Wellness Program to help you maintain your health.

My average patient spends between $35 to $100 per week on a Wellness program. Patients with severe cases with long histories tend to be at the upper end of this scale. Still, that’s less than the cost of a latte a day.

These prices include supplements and services. A Wellness program is a joint action between myself and my patients toward maintaining their health and preventing new health problems. It also allows me to detect issues that are just beginning to appear and “head them off” with less effort and expense. Finally, it puts me in your long-term health corner. Living on planet Earth, anything can happen! We can maintain your long-term health at a very low cost.

Insurance, Discount Programs, and Financing

Insurance:

None of my programs are eligible for health insurance. This is normal for holistic programs. A few states have insurance coverage for Naturopathic doctors (not Georgia!). Some insurance policies cover chiropractic adjustments. Otherwise, we’re all on our own in paying for holistic treatment.

Most of the labs we utilize are “functional labs,” which are not covered by insurance. We also use some standard blood labs, but your insurance cannot cover these unless ordered by your medical doctor. I can use blood labs done within the past three months, so if you have some recent labs, we may be able to use them. If you can arrange some of your blood labs from your doctor within the correct timeframe, we can use these as well.

Discount Programs:

Several discount programs are available to save between 10% to 15% off supplements and services.

Financing:

You can use CareCredit, an independent finance company, to finance one of the discount programs. This will allow you to get the total program discount and take six months to pay it off. CareCredit offers free financing: if you pay off the entire amount within six months, no interest or fees are charged.* (Go to CareCredit.com and tap “Apply”).

We also take all major credit cards so you can self-finance your program.

Costs of Other Holistic Health Care Practices

Chiropractic & Acupuncture

Some types of holistic treatment rely primarily on a specific treatment technique and may or may not add in supplements.

Examples would be chiropractic and acupuncture. These practices are very different from mine and charge fees mainly for their services.

Chiropractic care averages $50 to $75 for an adjustment. The number of adjustments recommended varies considerably, although a package of 60 – 75 or more adjustments in a year would be common for a patient with significant health problems.

Acupuncture sessions average $50 to $90 each. Acupuncture programs vary, but commonly the number of recommended treatments compare to a chiropractic program.

Functional Medicine

My practice is technically a “functional medicine” type of practice. This means that my primary treatment techniques include supplementation guided by functional lab testing.

Functional medicine is practiced by many different practitioners: medical doctors, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, chiropractors, acupuncturists, naturopaths, etc. Functional medicine is involved and complex, and training takes years.

If an MD practices functional medicine, there may be limited insurance coverage for parts of the treatment. Supplements and functional labs usually can’t be covered, but doctor visits may be.

Many functional medicine practices don’t want to keep a large inventory of supplements, so they have the patient buy supplements from special websites. This is important because supplements won’t be included when looking at prices from these practices. Often supplements are half the cost of a program, so keep this in mind when looking at pricing information from these practices.

A la carte pricing: Some clinics charge by the service. For example, an initial visit is $650; follow-up visits are $360. Labs, supplements, and other services are added to the bill on a per-visit basis. This approach effectively masks the total costs of a program. We give our patients overall estimates upfront, before beginning any treatment program.

Concierge clinics: The patient pays an annual membership to belong in some functional medicine clinics. In exchange, the clinic offers exceptional doctor access, and many services are included in the membership. Memberships range from $1,200 to $10,000 per year. This model can be well suited to those who need conventional medical services and want to avoid the frustration of HMO-type impersonal care. However, this type of practice rarely offers corrective care for chronic health conditions.

Get well quick, easy, and inexpensively clinics: These clinics offer a couple of injections or patches, a scan with a “miracle” device and / or whatever your insurance will cover. When you look at the facts of what it takes to handle a chronic health condition in time, finance, and effort, it’s easy to see the attraction of this approach. If you’ve got a significant health problem and the proposed solution sounds too good to be true, then sadly, that’s the reality of it. 

Summary

Dr. Melodie Billiot

There are many options to look at if you need health care.

My advice is always to use non-invasive, natural techniques FIRST. You can’t undo a surgery or un-take a pharmaceutical.

If you can get well without drugs and surgeries, it’s safer, healthier, and usually less stressful.

So, can we help you? Complete this New Patient Evaluation and let’s find out.

CareCredit Disclosure:

*No interest will be charged on the promo purchase if you pay it
off, in full, within the promo period. If you do not, interest will be
charged on the promo purchase from the purchase date. [ Any
discount will reduce your total purchase amount and may result
in you not satisfying the minimum qualifying purchase amount
required.] Regular account terms apply to non promo purchases
and, after promo period ends, to the promo balance. For new
accounts: Purchase APR (interest rate) is 26.99%; Minimum
Interest Charge is $2. Existing cardholders: See your credit card
agreement terms. Subject to credit approval.