FMSF Policies

Please refer to:

Working with FMSF

Initial appointments are  made via the patient portal in MD-HQ (once you have registered)

We will email you an invitation to our secure, online medical record system (MD-HQ: Patient Portal) where you will be able to fill out our new patient intake form and other details. You are required to complete your intake forms prior to scheduling.
Please upload any prior lab results, supplements and medications you may be taking to your “Patient Portal” in MD-HQ.
Established Patients will be scheduled by a team member. 

Phone/Video Appointments:

Functional Medicine SF offers patients the ability to communicate via the videoconferencing platform, Zoom.us, if, the arrangement is agreed to by both parties.

Zoom places security as the highest priority in the lifecycle operations of its public and hybrid cloud networks. Zoom strives to continually provide a robust set of security features to meet the requirements of businesses for safe and secure collaboration.

Host and Client authenticated meeting: A host is required to authenticate (via https) to the Zoom site with their user credentials (ID and password) to start a meeting. Client authentication process uses a unique per-client, per-session token to confirm the identity of each participant attempting to join a meeting. Each session has a unique set of session parameters that are generated by Zoom. Each authenticated participant must have access to these session parameters in conjunction with the unique session token in order to successfully join the meeting.”

For more information about Zoom.us security and privacy, please see: https://zoom.us/docs/doc/Zoom-Security-White-Paper.pdf

Agreement

I have been informed of and understand the risks and procedures involved with using the videoconferencing technology, Zoom.us. I agree to the terms listed above and I hereby voluntarily consent to the use of Zoom.us for sessions with my provider. I agree that Functional Medicine SF should not be held liable in the event that any outside party passes Zoom.us’s security and discovers personal or confidential information.

***  You must provide your consent to be able to use Virtual Video Appointments  ***

Phone or video consultations are available for patients who live in or out of the area after scheduling your initial appointment in person. Phone/video appointments will follow the same fee schedule. Virtually all services that can be done in person can be done via phone or video consultation. Lab tests can be ordered that can be performed in your area, and we may also order medication from your local pharmacy or that can be shipped to you.

Cancellation of Appointments:

Due to the popularity of requests for new patient consultations, there is a 14-day cancellation policy, and your appointment must be confirmed at least 14 days prior to your scheduled consultation. You may cancel your appointment by sending a secure message or cancellation request through the patient portal. If you have not received confirmation that we received your cancellation either by phone or patient portal message, it means we did not get your cancellation request and you will need to submit it again. The late notice fee is the cost of the new patient appointment, half of which will be waived if you complete a rescheduled appointment. Appointments canceled prior to the 14-day window will not incur a cancellation fee.

For established patients, cancellation must be 7 days in advance. If cancellation is at least 48 hours prior but less than 1 week, established patients will be assessed a $50 fee. For cancellation within a 48 hour window prior to the scheduled appointment, a fee of 50% of the appointment fee will be assessed for late cancellation the first time and for subsequent late cancellations, the full amount of the appointment will be charged.

For established patients, Coaching Appointment cancellation must be 48 hours in advance. If cancellation is at less than 24 hours, established patients will be assessed a $75 fee. 

Cancellations made by regular email are not considered valid.

Functional medicine works to identify the root cause of particular symptoms and then uses a personalized approach to help your body restore balance.  All new patients are placed in the New Patient Membership and will meet with Dr. Daniel monthly as well as Micki, our patient support, nutrition and detox coach and with Michelle who teaches powerful and effective modalities for helping to rewire aspects of your nervous system that facilitate optimal healing and well-being. 

The 90 minute initial intake appointment with Dr. Daniel will focus on the review of your medical history, health goals, current lifestyle habits and symptoms and to identify the type of testing that is needed to further identify the root cause.  At the end of the initial visit, you will leave with lab orders that may include blood testing, urine testing and stool testing. Whenever possible, Dr. Daniel does her best to order testing that is available within your insurance coverage plan. For PPO based insurances, most blood testing is covered at an in-network lab such as Quest or LabCorp. We do offer cash pay through our office for patients who do not have adequate insurance coverage. Initial blood testing panels for patients with no coverage or minimal coverage can range from $500-$800.  Dr. Daniel will order specialty testing as well that can include but are not limited to organic acids testing for $289, urine hormone testing for $240, and comprehensive stool testing for $379.  Some insurance providers offer coverage for some of the testing. Generally speaking, we can get a lot of information from a complete blood panel and comprehensive stool analysis.

The second visit will be scheduled for 60 minutes, to ensure enough time is available to review all of the lab work and implement a comprehensive and personalized plan.  The third and fourth appointments will further personalize and customize your plan based on multiple factors that will be considered and monitored. 

Thereafter, the number of visits and time in between visits is dependent on the complexity of your case, how quickly you want results and whether or not there are medications being used that require titrating to the optimal dose, as is the case with hormone replacement or thyroid disease.  Generally speaking, how effective the protocol is and how quickly results will be achieved is often reflective of the complexity of your case and the amount of time, attention and commitment you put in to the process.  Each case is evaluated by Dr. Daniel and each patient is recommended the appropriate membership level based on case needs.  

Functional medicine is just as much about removing hindrances to imbalance as it is about implementing personalized dietary changes, lifestyle changes, micronutrient replacement or hormone balancing and we are in partnership together on this process. Please expect a minimum of one to three year commitment to achieve lasting change and set your expectations and budget in line with that commitment.

We are very much invested in you achieving the goals you desire and want you to have every opportunity to experience the difference. In the ideal situation, we have an intake and testing phase where we assess the issues, an initial intervention phase to implement a personalized protocol, a monitoring phase, when minor adjustments if necessary can be made and a reassessment phase, where we see how well the first layer of intervention did in achieving your health goals. For the vast majority of cases, you can expect a 50-100% improvement after this process. Diving back in for round 2 will be required and necessary if your goals weren’t fully met or you have new goals you want to work on, in which case we usually proceed with more testing and implementation of a new plan or direction.

Prescription Refill Request:

It may take up to 1 week to process a prescription refill. Please plan ahead to avoid any interruption in your medications. 

Prescription refills must be faxed to our office by your pharmacy. Our fax # is 415-466-8031. 

We cannot guarantee that refill requests sent another way will be seen and addressed in a timely manner.

Medical Records and Forms:

The cost of having Medical Records sent to you or your doctor is $100. You may download any available lab work and patient notes from the portal directly free of charge.
(Once Membership starts this fee will be removed)

Medical records can only be released with your authorization. A medical records release form is available for download on our website or through the patient portal. Please allow 7-10 business after you have signed the release form to receive your records.

You are responsible for obtaining previous medical records from other physicians or health care providers. Please contact your physician or other health care provider to obtain these records.

Your records should be faxed to 415-466-8031.

All patients will be enrolled in a membership plan with automatic monthly payments. Our office accepts Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover. No additional charges will be applied to your credit card unless authorized by you. If there is recommended cash pay laboratory testing you will receive an estimate and will only be charged with your approval.

We also accept payment from Health Savings Accounts (HSA) or Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA). Functional Medicine SF does not accept insurance or Medicare and we cannot assure you that services (video/phone consultations or lab tests) will be reimbursed. You will be provided with diagnosis and procedure codes to assist you with possible insurance reimbursement.

If you have an HSA (Health Savings Account), functional medicine consultations and prescribed supplements are allowable, tax-free expenditures. Health Savings Accounts are a new option for health insurance and they have two parts. The first part is a health insurance policy that covers large hospital bills. The second part of the Health Savings Account is an investment account or retirement account from which you can withdraw money tax-free for medical care. Unused money accumulates with tax-free interest until retirement, when you can withdraw for any purpose and pay normal income taxes.

We strongly urge you to look into an HSA as an alternative insurance choice. To find out more, please go to www.hsainsider.com.

We recommend that everyone ask their insurance providers what type of out-of-network coverage they offer prior to using our services.

** Please note that we are not Medicare providers and are opted out of the Medicare program. Our services cannot be submitted to Medicare for reimbursement.

Functional Medicine SF does not accept insurance. We provide a Superbill, which can be submitted to your insurance company for reimbursement if you have an insurance that provides an out-of-network benefit. If you are unsure, call the member services number on the back of your card and inquire about your plan. You can let them know you are planning an appointment with an out-of-network physician and want to know what percentage of your visit will be eligible for reimbursement.

Common codes used for appointments include 99205, 99215, 99214 and 99354.  

For virtual appointments, we use the following code most frequently: 99443 and 99444.

Again, HSA and FSA accounts are accepted.

The Office of Functional Medicine SF has a strict Policy of not being involved with Legal matters.

All patients understand that by you or another party naming you in a legal case requesting us Functional Medicine SF to provide any of your medial record, will result in a $1500 Administration Fee applied to your account.

In addition to the Administration fee, Functional Medicine SF will Bill at the rate of $900 per hour including all communication, admin work  (including email and phone communications) and travel time.

All requested time will have an extra 1 (one) hour placed on invoice to allow for a 30 min prior to deposition clearing of Dr. Daniel schedule and 30 min post deposition to allow for any possible time overage not to interrupt with patient scheduled time. 

We will communicate with you if we receive a legal subpoena and to allow you plenty of time to have us removed for the requested action.

We will request removal from the case and we will show you how you can provide the requested information.

If you are unable to unwilling to comply with our Policy a fee will be applied.

This Fee is assessed to your account due to the amount of disruption these legal subpoenas cause.