Our goal at Functional Medicine SF is to provide you with the highest level of personalized care. We are committed to helping you achieve optimal health. It is important to read all of this information carefully and check off that you acknowledge and agree to our policies. This will allow us to help solve your problems more efficiently and enhance the quality of your care. Information about Functional Medicine SF or any of our programs and all relevant patient forms are available through our website, www.functionalmedicineSF.com, or the patient portal, https://patientsdrstephaniedaniel.md-hq.com.
Dr. Daniel sees patients in San Rafael and via virtual appointment by video conference and phone. Appointment times are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 10 to 5 pm. There are occasionally later or earlier appointments available, as well as at on Mondays for special circumstances.
After the initial appointment, which will be set by our staff, to schedule an appointment, please send us an appointment request through the patient portal.
San Rafael
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You are REQUIRED to have a separate primary care doctor or at least a provider you can go to for urgent matters.
Dr. Stephanie Daniel and Dr. Katie Cole offer functional medicine consultation only.
We do not offer after-hours or urgent care. You must have access to a primary care doctor for this purpose.
Please follow the link below for detailed pricing information for plan development and maintenance:
https://functionalmedicinesf.com/working-with-functional-medicine-sf/
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, email or patient portal message, it means we didn't get your cancellation request and you'll 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 cancelled 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.
Cancellations made by regular email are not considered valid.
Payment is due at the time of service. Our office accepts cash, checks, Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover. When you schedule an initial visit, we request a credit card on file to hold the appointment for you. No charges will be applied to your credit card unless you miss or cancel an appointment without proper notice. On the day of your scheduled appointment, all charges for consultation, as well as laboratory testing that does not need to be paid directly by you will be itemized and reviewed with you. Payment is due on the day of service. Most laboratory testing is separate and not billed at the time of the appointment. Follow-up or virtual consultations will be billed to your credit card on file in our office unless you provide other payment information and instructions prior to your appointment. If additional lab tests are required and our office sends test kits, the appropriate fees will be charged to your account upon your approval of the estimate that is sent via the portal.
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 (office visits, 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.
** 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.
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.
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.
Again, HSA and FSA accounts are accepted.
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.
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.
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 mailed to the address below or faxed to (415)466-8031.
Forms that you need filled out outside of an appointment time will be billed at the standard hourly rate of for the amount of time required of either Dr. Daniel or Dr. Cole.
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.
Email communication is done only through the patient portal and will be limited to answering questions regarding side effects, clarification of therapy or logistical questions. Any communication that requires clinical decision-making will best be addressed in an appointment. The best determinant is: does your question require a "yes" or "no" answer. If so, patient portal communication is welcomed and we will attempt to address your inquiry within 48 business hours or as soon as possible. If not, we will request that you request an appointment via the appointment section of the portal. Dr. Daniel and Dr. Cole receive many messages and won't always be able to respond to your updates or to messages that are not related to your current regimen. When time allows, they will do her best to answer quick questions, but this is not guaranteed. All patient portal correspondence should be done via our secure messaging system in the patient portal, MD-HQ, once you are an established patient. If your inquiry seems to require a change in your protocol or you are experiencing new onset of different symptoms, this usually indicates it is time to make a follow-up appointment.
Functional medicine works to identify the root cause of particular symptoms and then uses a personalized approach to help your body restore balance. This process involves an initial intake appointment to review 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, salivary testing, urine testing and stool testing. Whenever possible, Dr. Daniel does her best to order testing that are 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 work with specialty lab companies, with blood panels that are lower than retail for patients who do not have adequate insurance coverage. Initial blood testing panels for patients with no coverage or minimal coverage are on average, in the $500 range or may not cost anything at all if you have an HMO, including Kaiser or any PPO based insurance. Saliva cortisol testing is available for less than $100, stool testing runs $345 with some insurances offering coverage and urine tests are dependent on type, but average $150-$300 depending on what is being tested. The second visit is the first follow-up appointment. For the second visit, we allow 60 minutes, to ensure enough time is available to review all of the lab work and implement a comprehensive and personalized plan. Thereafter, follow-up is recommended in the acute intervention phase every 2-8 weeks for the first 3-6 months depending on your case and set of circumstances. Most patients can expect on average 4-5 visits in the first ~ 6-9 months and then annual or bi-annual maintenance visits if medication or hormone refills are required.
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. We can give you an idea how often you will need to follow-up in the acute phase at your first or second appointment when the case is better understood. Generally speaking, how effective the protocol is and how quickly results will be achieved is often reflective of the amount of time, attention and commitment you put in to the process.
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 three to six month 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 (1 appointment) where we assess the issues, an initial intervention phase (1-3 appointments) to implement a personalized protocol, a monitoring phase, when minor adjustments if necessary can be made (0-2 appointments) and a reassessment phase (1 appointment), 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.
If you are out of state and have not had an initial in person consult, Dr. Daniel can still work with you on a consultative basis. This means she can take a look at your history, lab reports and current treatments and advise you on how she would approach your case if you were her patient. She can make suggestions for further testing you may need, and offer suggestions for interventions and changes to your regimen that could further support you in finding optimal health. She cannot, however, order labs or prescribe medications unless she has seen you at least once in person in her office. Many out of state patients have been able to achieve the optimal wellness they are seeking by working with Dr. Daniel in conjunction with their own doctors who can follow the recommendations offered to them.