Frequently Asked Questions

What is Naturopathic Medicine?

Naturopathic doctors (NDs/NMDs) are trained in natural healing modalities that facilitate self-healing. The philosophy of naturopathic medicine stems from Hippocratic teaching more than 2,000 years ago: Vis medicatrix naturae — nature is the healer of all. The training of a naturopath combines evidence-based medicine with time tested alternative medicine. This integrative approach is perfect for the patient who wants guidance in reversing their chronic disease, which is currently being managed by medications.

Naturopaths experience the same four years of basic bio-medical science training as that of allopathic practice; however, in addition, they learn to treat patients using natural modalities such as Regenerative medicine, clinical nutrition, herbal medicine, acupuncture, and Hormone Replacement Therapy. They choose a treatment based on the individual patient, not based on the diagnosis.

What is the difference between an NMD and an MD

NMD’s in the state of Arizona are licensed as primary care doctors and have full prescription rights. Therefore, we can easily work with your regular physician in managing your health care. We are contracted with labs such as Sonora Quest to do your blood work which can be covered by your insurance. In addition, we use specialty labs that help us investigate into the cause of your condition, such as functional genetic testing, 24 hour urine tests for hormones and organic acids, and neurotransmitter testing. These allow us to uncover previously unknown culprits behind your symptoms and disease process. Often times, our patients have had some blood work and a diagnoses established by their MD, but are unsatisfied with the extent of treatment, which is management of symptoms only. By finding the cause and treating that, the body will be able to reach a new state of health once the offenses have been eliminated.

What is the difference between a naturopathic doctor and a Nutritionist?

The training to be a nutritionist is varied and can be done in a weekend as an online course or in a few years. In addition, they are not trained or licensed to diagnose and treat disease. Naturopathic doctors attend 4 year graduate medical schools and receive medical training in diagnosis, conventional and alternative treatments. Therefore, naturopaths are more qualified to provide nutritional guidance for your particular diagnosis or symptoms. Naturopathic nutrition is very different than what is offered through nutritionists and mainstream media.

I’d like to learn more before I make an appointment. What is the best way to do this?

If you have never seen a naturopathic doctor before, and are a little unsure of what to expect you can fill out the appointment request form appointment request form and a response will be sent to you within the next business day.

What is the first office visit like?

The goal of the first visit is to start uncovering the underlying cause of your illness, to understand you as an individual, and to see which kind of testing you may need. An initial visit lasts up to 75 minutes.

How often will I need to come back for follow-up visits?

Following your progress after your initial visit is an essential part of your treatment plan. As your body heals, often modifications and adjustments need to be made to your naturopathic plan. The only way to effectively do this is through regular follow-up appointments. On average follow-up visits are once a month for 30 minutes.

Can I still see my MD?

Yes. Licensed naturopathic physicians serve as a bridge between conventional and alternative treatments because we are trained to understand drug-herb interactions and when conventional testing is needed.

Does Insurance cover naturopathic medicine?

Most insurance companies do not cover naturopathic medicine. We are out of network with United Health. We also accept HSA and FSA. Patients find they end up spending less money over time due to decreased use of copays and medications. Management of symptoms becomes expensive, as does being diagnosed with a chronic degenerative disease such as cancer. The goal of naturopathic medicine is to prevent degeneration and to reverse the disease so that the symptoms no longer need to be managed by medications and hospital visits.

Appointment Types

Initial Visit: The initial visit lasts 75 minutes and is needed to fully understand your medical history in order to know which testing needs to be done to explore the cause of your symptoms.

Acute Visit: Acute office visits are also available for established patients to address illnesses such as a cold, flu, an ear infection, diarrhea, etc. Come in for a short focused visit for personalized natural health recommendations.

Follow-up Visits: Following your progress after your initial visit is an essential part of your treatment plan. As your body heals, often modifications and adjustments need to be made to your naturopathic plan. The only way to effectively do this is through regular follow-up appointments. On average follow-up visits are once a month for 30 minutes.

Telephone Consultations: For patients who do not want to come in or live far away, telephone appointments are available. Telephone appointments may not be possible in all situations.

Cancellation Policy & refunds: There will be a $75 charge for appointments that are not cancelled 24 hours in advance. No refunds are given for office visits already taken by a patient.

NOTICE OF PRIVACY PRACTICES: This notice describes how medical information about you may be used and disclosed and how you can get access to this information. If you have any questions about this notice please contact our office.

We take our responsibility to safeguard your protected health information very seriously. We value your trust as an important part of our ability to provide you with the best possible medical care. We are dedicated to defending your right to a confidential relationship with your physician. This notice is intended to inform you of how we protect, use and disclose your information as well as to explain your right to control these disclosures.

Our Duties
We are required by law to keep your information private. We must also provide you with this Notice and abide by its terms. We may need to revise our privacy practices from time to time. We expressly reserve the right to change the terms of our Notice of Privacy Practices and to make the new terms effective for all information covered by our Notice. If such changes occur, we will let you know about the new terms by providing a copy of the changes.

Your Privacy Rights
Please note that you are entitled to very specific rights regarding the use and disclosure of your information. We have listed your rights below:

Right to Inspect and Copy
You have the right to inspect and copy your health information, such as medical and billing records, that we use to make decisions about your care. You must submit a written request to the physician in order to inspect and/or copy your information.

Right to Amend
If you believe our records contain errors, you may make a written request that they be ammended. We reserve the right to review your request and can decline to amend the record. We are required to place a copy of your proposed amendment in the record, even when we do not agree to amend the record itself.

Right to Request Restrictions
You have the right to request restrictions on the use and disclosure of your information. We are not required to agree to your request. If we do agree, we will comply to the best of our ability unless the information is needed to provide you with emergency treatment. To request restrictions, you may complete and submit the Request for Restriction on Use/Disclosure of Medical Information.

Right to Request Confidential Communications
You have the right to request that we communicate with you about medical matters in a certain way or at a certain location. For example, you can ask that we only contact you at work or by mail.

Right to a Paper Copy of This Notice
You have the right to a paper copy of this notice. You may ask us to give you a copy of this notice at any time. Even if you have agreed to receive it electronically, you are still entitled to a paper copy.

Right to an Accounting of Disclosures
You have the right to request an “accounting of disclosures.” This is a list of the disclosures we made of medical information about you for purposes other thantreatment, payment and health care operations.
To obtain this list, you must submit your request in writing. It must state a time period, which may not be longer than six years. Your request should indicate in what format you want the list (paper or electronically).

Complaints and Investigations
We have developed procedures for investigating any complaints or concerns you may have regarding our use and disclosure of your information or any other complaint you may have regarding our services. The law allows you to contact the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services with your complaints the use and disclosure of your information. You may also contact us directly regarding your complaint. We will not, and legally cannot, retaliate against you for any complaint.

Types of Use and Disclosure of Your Protected Health Information
We may disclose your information for the following purposes without your consent:

For Treatment Purposes
We may disclose information needed for the provision, coordination or management of health care and related services, including the coordination between our office and a third party, such as a consultation between medical providers or a referral from our office to another provider. We may share information about you and disclose information to people who do not work in our office in order to coordinate your care, such as phoning prescriptions to your pharmacy, scheduling lab work and ordering X-rays. Family members and other health-care providers may be part of your medical care outside this office and may require information about you that we have.

For Payment
To obtain reimbursement from your insurer, we may be required to disclose your information. This may be necessary for determining your elgibility for  coverage and adjudication of claims, billing, claims management and collections activities. We may also be required to disclose your information to your insurer for review of the medical necessity, coverage, appropriateness or justification of our charges. You have the right to restrict disclosures of your PHI to a health plan if you have paid out of pocket in full for the treatment.

Appointment Reminders
We may contact you (via voicemail messages, texts, letters, emails) as a reminder that you have an appointment for your treatment or medical care at our office.

Treatment Alternatives
We may tell you about or recommend possible treatment options or alternatives that may be of interest to you. We also may tell you about health-related products or services that may be of interest to you.

Marketing Health-Related Services
We will not use your health information for marketing communications without your written prior authorization. We will not sell your PHI to another organization for marketing or any other purposes.

Special Situations

We may use or disclose health information about you without your permission for the following purposes, subject to all applicable legal requirements and limitations:
1. To avert a Serious Threat to Health or Safety.  We may use and disclose health information about you when necessary to prevent a serious threat to your health and safety or the health and safety of the public or another person.

2. Required by Law. We will disclose health information about you when required to do so by federal, state, or local law.

3. Research. We may use and disclose health information about you for research projects that are subject to a special approval process. We will ask you for your permission if the researcher will have access to your name, address or other information that reveals who you are, or will be involved in your care at the office.

4. Organ and Tissue Donation. If you are an organ donor, we may release health information to organizations that handle organ procurement or organ,, eye or tissue transplantation or to an organ donation bank, as necessary to facilitate such donation and transplantation.

5. Military, Veterans, National Security and Intelligence. If you are or were a member of the armed forces, or part of the national security or intelligence communities, we may be required by military command or other government authorities to release health information about you. We may also release information about foreign military personnel to the appropriate foreign military authority.

6. Workman’s Compensation. We may release health information about you for workers’ compensation or similar programs. These programs provide benefits for work-related injuries or illness.

7. Public Health Risks. We may disclose health information about you for public health reason in order to prevent or control disease, injury or disability; or report births, deaths, suspected abuse or neglect, non-accidental physical injuries, reactions to medications or problems with products.

8. Health Oversight Activities. We may disclose health information to a health oversight agency for audits, investigations, inspections, or licensing purposes. These disclosures may be necessary for certain state and federal agencies to monitor the health care system, government programs, and compliance with civil rights laws.

9.Lawsuits and Disputes. If you are involved in a lawsuit or a dispute, we may disclose health information about you in response to a court or administrative order. Subject to all applicable legal requirements, we may also disclose health information about you in response to a subpoena.

10. Law Enforcement. We may release health information if asked to do so by a law enforcement official in response to a court order, subpoena, warrant,summons or similar process subject to all applicable legal requirements.

11. Coroners, Medical Examiners and Funeral Directors. We may release health information to a coroner or medical deceased person or to determine the cause of death.

12. Family and Friends. We may disclose health information about you to your family members or friends if we obtain your verbal agreement to do so or if we give you an opportunity to object to such a disclosure and you do not raise an objection. We may also disclose health information to your family or friends if we can infer from the circumstances, based on our professional judgement, that you would not object.

13. Information Not Personally Identifiable. We may use or disclose health information about you in a way that does not personally identify you or reveal who you are.

14. Deceased person’s PHI may be disclosed by our practice to family or others involved in the person’s care or payment for care, unless our practice knows the deceased preferred that certain people not receive the PHI. Disclosures are limited to the PHI directly relevant to the person’s involvement.

For example, we may assume you agree to our disclosure of your personal health information to your spouse when you bring your spouse with you into the exam room during treatment or while treatment is discussed. In situations where you are not capable of giving consent ( because you are not present or due to your incapacity or medical emergency), we may using our professional judgment, determine that a disclosure to your family member or friend is in your best interest. In that situation, we will disclose only health information relevant to the person’s involvement in your care.

Other Uses and Disclosures of Health Information

We will not use or disclose your health information for any purpose other than those identified in the previous sections without your specific, written  Authorization. We must obtain your Authorization separate from any Consent we may have obtained from you. If you give us authorization to use or disclose health information about you, you may revoke that authorization, in writing at any time. If you revoke your authorization, we will no longer use or disclose information about you for the reasons covered by our written authorization. However, we cannot take back any uses or disclosures already made with your permission. You have the right to be notified following a breach of your PHI by our practice.

Complaints

If you believe your privacy rights have been violated, you may file a complain with our office or with the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. To file a complaint with our office, contact:

Naturopathic Clinic of Phoenix

4050 E Greenway RD suite 5

Phoenix, AZ 85032