Office Information
Thank you for considering Alpine Valley Wellness Center for your health care needs. Please take a moment to review our office information, as it assists us in providing you with excellent service.
Office Hours
The Alpine Valley Wellness Clinic office hours are currently reduced and in flux due to the pandemic. Please call us to get our current hours of operation.
Contacting Our Office
- 509.886.9355
- 430 Elva Way
East Wenatchee, WA 98802
Given the amount of contact we have with our patients and other medical professionals, our phone line may be busy. Please consider leaving a message – we would really like to have the opportunity to talk with you. For a variety of privacy and security reasons, we do not currently utilize email, social media, or Skype communication. Please see our FAQ for more information.
Visit Expectations
Visit Structure
First visits for adults last 1 ½ hours; for children, the visit is usually 1 hour.
Return visits are typically 20 to 40 minutes, depending upon the complexity of your needs.
Insurance Constraints
It is useful to understand that the medical care you receive is heavily influenced by what your insurance company is willing to pay for. The restrictions imposed by your insurance company are constantly changing. Please understand that it is your responsibility to make sure that your insurance policy covers all treatments you are receiving.
To avoid any unpleasant surprises, please call your insurance company beforehand and verify what treatments they will cover and for what period of time. We do collect co-payments at the time of your visit. If any treatment is not covered by your policy (e.g. weight loss, infertility, and NAET), you will be responsible for any cash payments.
Insurance reimbursements are structured to reward practitioners who see a large number of patients in a short amount of time. Part of the success of naturopathic medicine, on the other hand, is that we take the time to get to the root of the problem, time to tailor your treatments to you, and time to do educational, preventative, and lifestyle-intensive interventions.
However, your insurance company does not reimburse for much of this. We absorb the cost of doing these interventions without charging you because we believe they have a tremendously positive impact on your health. But there are limits to what we can do in any one visit. To help us provide optimum care, we suggest the following:
- Please prioritize a maximum of two health issues to address per visit for best results.
- Follow up visits are usually 20 or 40 minutes. In some instances, such as acupuncture or electrotherapy, you may be in the treatment room longer, but generally the doctor will only be available for the allotted time.
- Please present questions and concerns as early as possible in the visit so we can ensure they will be addressed.
- Please be diligent about following through on directions that will impact your treatment. For example, it is important to be well hydrated for your electrotherapy sessions.
Privacy and Confidentiality
Health care information that is generated and archived at the Alpine Valley Wellness center is protected in accordance with the HIPAA/HITECH/Omnibus requirements. Your healthcare information is private and cannot be shared with anyone else unless they meet specific criteria. Your records are kept in your chart and are secured in our clinic at all times. Access to the clinic is limited to medical personnel, employees, and supervised guests.
Emergency Contact
For all critical, psychiatric, or life-threatening emergencies, please call 911 or proceed immediately to your local hospital. The clinic is not set up to do these kinds of emergency interventions.
The clinic physicians carry a pager for appropriate emergency contact with established clinic patients. Our pager number is always available by calling our office number, listed above. To be clear, an emergency is a health problem which you think is serious enough that it definitely cannot wait until the next working day. There is a charge of $25 per page unless one of the doctors specifically asks you to page them (For why, please see our FAQ). As your insurance company will not cover this expense, you will be responsible for paying this charge.
While pager technology is generally quite stable, there are a number of circumstances where it can fail. For this reason, it is very important that you proceed to an Urgent Care center or Emergency Room in a serious situation if you do not hear back from your physician after a short period of time.
Telephone Limitations
It is essential to understand the limitations of what any physician is able to accomplish without actually seeing you. The most important limitation is that we cannot diagnose and/or treat medical conditions over the telephone. This constraint is imposed by state and federal government guidelines, insurance company policies, and the boundaries of medical ethics. Situations that are complex or require a good deal of discussion are best handled by an appointment or a scheduled phone consultation.
Also, we cannot discuss a condition over the phone if it is an illness for which you have not been previously seen. For these same reasons, we cannot prescribe supplements or medications over the telephone for someone who we have not seen previously as a patient, including family members who are not established patients of the clinic.
Phone Consultations
Telephone consultations are provided for established patients only under special circumstances determined by your doctor. There is a charge of $75 for each 30 minute segment, which will need to be scheduled with your doctor. Your insurance company will not cover this expense – you will be responsible to pay this charge. Clarification of on-going therapy or any discussion with the doctor under five (5) minutes is not considered a phone consultation and will not be charged.
Non-medical Services
Because of escalating labor and material costs, we reluctantly have begun charging for some non-medical services. Requests for medical records by other providers is a service we continue to provide for free. However, personal requests for medical records will incur a charge based on the number of pages requested. Special requests that are not reimbursed by your insurance company, such as letter writing, medical leave document processing by the doctors, health saving account letters, etc. will be billed at the regular rate of $75/hour. Our ability to provide such services is limited and typically requires a minimum of 7 business days to process. Please check with the front desk for more information.
Test Results and Prescriptions Refills
For prescription refills, please call the pharmacy where the medication will be filled and have them fax our office a prescription refill request. Prescriptions refills typically take between 6 to 48 hours to address.
As a general rule, most lab results are received within 7 days except for Pap smears, biopsies, and special testing such as food allergy panels, which can take between 10-14 days. Please note that because of the complexity of some results that are positive, an appointment will be required to discuss them. Labs that are not urgent are discussed at the next follow up visit. If you would like the results sooner, please call us.
Waiting Room Etiquette: Chemical Sensitivity, Children, and Cell Phone Use
Many of our patients are chemically-sensitive or are struggling with various kinds of allergies. For this reason, please do not bring pets or wear perfumes, colognes, or other scented products to the clinic.
If your child is not coming to the clinic as a patient, please consider that all clinics have a variety of sick patients who your child may be exposed to. Please plan accordingly.
We ask that our patients turn off their cell phones prior to going into an exam room and that they step outside the waiting room if they are going to answer a call. This will help us to keep the clinic space relaxing, therapeutic, and enjoyable for all our patients.
Payment Policy
For those without insurance coverage, complete payment is expected at the end of each office visit unless some other payment plan is created. We do accept MasterCard and Visa, though cash or personal checks are preferred. Checks or credit card payments that are denied for lack of funds will incur a fee of $20. Items not covered by insurance, such as supplements, need to be paid at the time of the visit.
Credit Cards
Please note that, in order to keep costs down, we only accept credit cards in person. The reason for this is that the credit card companies charge us an even higher fee if we have to key in your credit card number versus swiping it on our terminal. If you find this as irritating as we do, you may want to consider letting your credit card company know.
Missed Appointments and Cancelation Policy
Because of the volume of patients wanting to see the doctors on any given day, it is challenging to get patients in and the clinic has a significant waiting list. Each missed appointment represents a lost opportunity to serve our patients, some of whom have urgent needs. For this reason, and because of the increasing number of missed appointments, we have initiated a cancellation policy.
For established patients, we require a minimum of 24 hours’ notice, received during our normal business hours, for canceled or rescheduled visits. Cancelations made with less than 24 hours’ notice will incur a $60 fee for a missed half hour appointment, a $75 fee for an hour missed appointment, and a $15 fee for a missed blood draw. Your insurance company will not cover this charge – it will need to be paid out of pocket. Repeated instances of not appearing for scheduled visits may nullify our ability to continue offering medical care. Extenuating circumstances or emergencies are exceptions that will not be billed.
For new patients, a deposit or credit card number is necessary to secure an initial visit with our physicians. If you do not have a credit card, a deposit of $60 via check or money order can be sent to our office. You will only be charged a $60 fee if you cancel your appointment with less than 24 hours’ notice. Deposits will be returned and credit card numbers will be destroyed at the first visit.
Dispensary Products/Supplements
Please see our Natural Pharmacy page.
Insurance Concerns
Please see our Insurance Information page.
Laboratory Tests
Please see our Diagnostic and Lab Services page.