Frequently Asked Questions
Direct Care FAQS
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Direct Care or Direct Primary Care (DPC) is a new or alternative model of health care delivery. By eliminating third party payers, we are able to deliver high quality care at fixed monthly costs. By utilizing a membership subscription, a DPC clinic is able to have a much smaller panel of patients (less than 600 vs 3,000). This means more open slots, more time to discuss your concerns and more personalized care.
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Would you use your car insurance for an oil change? Health insurance and medical care become a similar analogy. In the current insurance model, for physicians to be reimbursed a patient has to be seen in an appointment, certain boxes to be checked for insurance requirements and more staff to accommodate billing. This translates to greater number of patients to see in a day, shorter visit times (sometimes overbooked appointments), need for new patients, fewer open visits for established patients, less direct access to your physician and often more expensive care. In the DPC model, we do not bill insurance allowing for all the benefits of medical care without the hurdles.
*see insurance FAQs section for further details.
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Nope, thankfully no! Consider it similar services without the big price tag (and one can only assume valet parking). Concierge practices charge a monthly fee, AND bill your insurance for services provided. Direct Care eliminates third party billing, meaning your insurance will not be billed for membership services.
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We take patients on a first come first serve basis, after a meet and greet phone or video visit. This allows us to spend the time we need with each new patient and ensure we always have visit slots available for our current members. The meet and greet is a required part of this process, to ensure we have similar goals and are a good fit for your primary care.
Primary Care Services FAQs
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Your membership includes preventative care counseling, management of chronic conditions and acute concerns. It also includes increased access to communicate with Dr. McEnery. She can answer some questions over text! We also offer labs and procedures at additional low cost for members.
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Similar visits you would expect to have with a family physician, but without the rush or having to book months in advance. Visits for adult and pediatric patients can range from an acute problems (such as a UTI), preventative care (annual visit), pre-participation visit (sports physical) or management of chronic medical conditions (such as high blood pressure).
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Your membership includes labs that done in office such as urinalysis, pregnancy tests, wet mounts and strep tests. If additional labs or imaging is needed, you can choose to use your insurance for labs / imaging or take advantage of our discounted cash prices for labs.
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Yes! 100%, YES! Most chronic conditions can be done with virtual visits. Although not everything can be done virtually, we are happy to discuss to ensure the appropriate setting for your visit. It is also required that you have at least one in person visit per year, consider this your annual visit.
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If you have specific questions, please reach out! Prior to joining we do require a meet-and-greet phone or video visit to ensure we are a good fit and answer any additional questions you may have.
*no medical advice will be given during meet-and-greet visits.
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There is no cost to cancel, we just ask for a 30 day notice. The 30 day notice allows for us to help ensure you have what you need to transfer care elsewhere. If you choose to re-enroll after cancelation, there is a $150 re-enrollment fee (per member). New patient memberships are added on a first come first serve basis regardless of prior membership status.
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We do not offer any one time acute visits to non-members. This allows plenty of time in the schedule for our current members needs.
Eating Disorder Medical Management
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Medical management of eating disorders is a separate membership for several reasons. First, we want you to have access to this type of care, no matter who your primary care physician is. Two, it allows for all the benefits of a direct primary care model: increased access, longer appointment times, coordinated care, etc.
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After initial consultation, your monthly membership will include your visits specific to medical management of your eating disorder, increased access for questions or concerns, coordination of care with your treatment team and access to discounted labs. Primary Care is not included in this membership.
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Absolutely! Although we do believe that DPC is the best care delivery model, we want you to have the best treatment team for you. This could be seeing Dr. McEnery as your PCP or keeping your current PCP. A primary care physician is recommended for everyone going through eating disorder treatment.
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Dr. McEnery can help (along side your current treatment team) facilitate the transfer to a higher level of care. When there, she can also continue to communicate with the team there when needed and help coordinate discharge planning when returning to the outpatient treatment setting.
*membership does not include costs of outside medical treatments.
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Nope! We just ask for a 30 day notice. This allows us to help coordinate your health care if you choose to change practices. There is a $150 re-enrollment fee (in addition to the standard starting fees) if you choose to re-enroll in the future after leaving our practice. Membership is taken on a first come first serve basis regardless of prior membership status.
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This is the beauty of this model, no referral is needed to start the process. We want to eliminate barriers to care. You are welcome to call or email or have a referral to start the process.
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Unfortunately at this time we are unable to see any patient with state funded insurance, including, Medicare, Medicaid, TRICARE/CHAMPUS/CHAMPVA, the Veterans’ Administration, or the Indian Health Service. We hope this will change in the near future to allow services to be provided to everyone regardless of government healthcare beneficiary status. Please email to join our waitlist so we can let you know when this changes!
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Dr. McEnery is currently licensed in the state of Texas and can provide telemedicine services to established patients in Texas. Together Waco Direct care does require at minimum one visit per calendar year in person, and this is typically the second part of the evaluation. There are limitations to telemedicine especially in the evaluation of malnutrition and eating disorder related complications, if you have questions please reach out for a free welcome call.
Insurance specifics
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This all goes back to the oil change car analogy, you wouldn’t use your car insurance for an oil change but you would for an accident. We encourage you to have some kind of insurance or coverage especially for emergencies. You cannot predict a car accident or appendicitis. DPC is not a replacement for insurance nor is it an emergency room. We can provide high quality primary care and acute visit needs to hopefully decrease the likelihood of you needing hospitalization or emergency room care.
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Although encouraged, insurance (or another form of coverage) is not required to join Together Waco Direct Care. The cost for our services is the same for everyone regardless of insurance status.
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Yes absolutely, in fact I encourage you to share your insurance information with us at your first visit. That way if you would like to use your insurance for labs, medications, imaging and referrals (speciality care) we already have it.
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The short answer is yes, but it’s complicated. This is really a gray zone in direct care. The short answer is based on the current legislature it’s unclear and is dependent on each individuals specific FSA policy. The long answer is I would recommend checking with your accountant or lawyer prior to utilizing your FSA for your membership.
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The short answer is yes, the long answer is its again complicated. Unfortunately HMO plans typically require a primary care physician who is in network in order to have certain tests, referrals, etc to be covered under their plan (sometimes even if tests are ordered by another specialist!). Some choose to have not only a direct care membership, but also an in network PCP to allow for ordering for insurance requirements. Prior to considering this type of arrangement, please discuss at a meet-and-greet as well as with your in network PCP.
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Unfortunately at this time we are unable to see you if you have this type of insurance or any other government funded healthcare (including, Medicare, Medicaid, TRICARE/CHAMPUS/CHAMPVA, the Veterans’ Administration, or the Indian Health Service). This won’t be forever, please join the wait list and we will alert you when we are able to see patients who are beneficiaries of these plans.
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No, thankfully no. The membership is not considered a replacement for insurance nor does it cover outside services.
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Together Waco Direct Care is (thankfully) not in network with any insurance plans. As for our other team members at together waco it is on a person-by-person level and would recommend contacting them directly. Together Waco Direct Care membership does not cover services by our other team members.
Togetherwaco.com
Fees
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A membership allows us to provide high quality primary care at fixed costs. Often times it saves our members money in the long run, but more importantly it can save time and allow for peace of mind.
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Not for our services :) that is the beauty of direct care, it will allow you to appropriately budget your primary care health care costs. As someone who has gotten a “surprise” bill, I never want someone in my care to experience that from the care I provide.
*this does not apply to outside serves or if you chose to use your insurance for services ordered by Dr. McEnery.
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If you have specific medical needs, labs or are hoping for certain in office primary care procedures or labs, we are happy to discuss costs ahead of joining to ensure we are a good fit.
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Your membership is charged on a monthly basis. If you have additional needs such as cash pay labs or procedures payment will be due at the time of your visit and will be discussed prior to ordering or performing of procedure. We are not able to control or estimate costs of labs, imaging or referrals if you choose to use your insurance, and payment will be due to the provider of the outside services.
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Nope! We just ask for a 30 day notice. This allows us to help coordinate your health care if you choose to change practices. If you choose to return after cancelation, there is a $150 re-enrollment fee and membership will continue on a first come first serve basis regardless of prior membership status.
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For Primary Care - We charge an enrollment fee as well as the first month’s membership fee for primary care. This will allow us to request and review your medical records, have a 1 hour establish care appointment and schedule any follow up visits or care that are needed.
For Medical Management of Eating Disorders - the initial consultation and enrollment fee will be due at time of first appointment. Membership enrollment will occur at the second visit.
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Dr. McEnery has additional training and experience with the treatment of medical management of eating disorders. We know the complexity, attention to detail, more frequent followup and coordination of care that it requires and you deserve to get to recovery. The higher costs allows us to spend the time we need at each visit, and coordinate your care between visits. We also are happy to be both your primary care physician or join your existing one in helping to treat your eating disorder.
Contact us.
kmcenery@togetherwacodpc.com
phone: (254) 230-0838
Fax: (254) 237-2455
2040 N Valley Mills Dr.
Waco TX 76710
By Appointment Only
Current in office appointments scheduled Tuesday-Thursdays