WHAT IS PERFORMANCE MEDICINE?

Performance Medicine is at its core a different approach to health and healing. Sure, you want to avoid illness and prevent chronic disease—who doesn’t? But this is not a potent motivator to help you execute the habits, routines, and lifestyle that improves your health and vitality. Instead, you need to focus on the immediate need to perform at a high and sustainable capacity for your job, your family, your life. Performance Medicine focuses your energy and effort on strategies, practices, and techniques that will put you on a higher playing field—and yes, also improve your health and wellbeing at the same time. Performance Medicine involves a mix of medical disciplines combined with the most recent developments in behavioral psychology, lifestyle, longevity, nutrition, physical fitness and training, mindset, and recovery. The powerful combination is then applied to the individual with unique circumstances, physiology, and psychology to enhance your ability to show up for what matters most to you.

HOW IS PERFORMANCE MEDICINE DIFFERENT THAN PRIMARY CARE?

Traditional primary care is reactive—it treats symptoms and manages (rather than prevents or curing) chronic disease. This is not the fault of primary care, but rather the time constraints imposed on physicians and financial incentives of health care delivery. Unfortunately, patients often end up overmedicated, misunderstood, and disempowered. Performance Medicine is all about providing not patients—but whole and unique people or “clients”—with the tools, techniques, and team to truly own and guide their health journey. While this demands an investment of energy and responsibility from the client, the return of enhanced self-efficacy can be life changing.

HOW IS PERFORMANCE MEDICINE DIFFERENT THAN CONCIERGE MEDICINE?

Concierge medicine provides faster and easier access to your physician. This, in turn, facilitates more personalized care and attention from your doctor, who generally is caring for a smaller number of patients. The fundamental premise and philosophy of most concierge practices, however, is still largely aligned with that of traditional health care. The focus is on medicine, which is a tiny fraction of your holistic wellbeing. Performance Medicine provides many of the benefits of concierge level care but empowers you as the primary architect of a more proactive and personalized health journey.

For more information on this, see our detailed blog post here.

SHOULD I KEEP MY PRIMARY CARE PROVIDER (PCP)?

Your Performance Physician performs some, but NOT all, of the essential functions of your traditional PCP. If you have multiple medical conditions being managed by your current PCP doctor or if you really like your PCP, your Performance Physician is happy to consult closely with your existing PCP. We believe that traditional medicine has an important role to play in treating acute illness and managing chronic disease. Therefore, we advise all of our clients to maintain a relationship with a trusted primary care provider.

IS PERFORMANCE MEDICINE RIGHT FOR ME?

Performance Medicine is for anyone who wants to play an active role in designing their lifestyle, improving their health, and elevating their day-to-day performance. Creating a healthy, vital life is an ongoing project that requires careful nurturing and regular investments of time, energy, and resources. If you are willing to put in the effort, we are excited to provide the expertise, structure, and support to help you achieve unparalleled rewards.

WHAT DO WE DO?

Performance Medicine services focus on:

• Annual comprehensive health review and physical exam

• Health and performance coaching

• Lifestyle design with a focus on physical training, dietary pattern, sleep, stress management & recovery

• Cardiovascular risk reduction

• Metabolic health & weight management

• Musculoskeletal health

• Anxiety & depression

• Professional fulfillment & performance mindset

WHAT Do we NOT do?

Performance Medicine is not traditional primary care. Performance medicine is all about protecting and optimizing your health and well being. Your Performance Physician does not provide:

• In-office evaluation, assessments, and treatment for sick visits

• Vaccinations

• In-office diagnostics (X rays, strep tests, urine collection, etc)

• In-office procedures (wart removal, skin biopsy, stitches, etc)

• Burn and wound care

• Obstetric and gynecological care

We recommend that our female patients maintain an OB-Gyn for regular pap smears. We will remind you to get your age-related screenings like colonoscopies and mammograms. We maintain close partnerships with urgent care centers and medical specialists and will refer you to the appropriate providers and coordinate your care should the need arise.

why do you charge an up-front onboarding fee?

Performance Medicine is predicated on a long-term commitment. Creating new behaviors and healthy habits, after all, is a process. And progress demands persistence and patience. By putting some financial “skin in the game” up front, you up the stakes and psychologically commit to the long-game. This will help you to maintain motivation and build self-discipline, essential ingredients for your success.

DO YOU TAKE INSURANCE?

Not at this time. Performance Medicine is currently structured on a direct primary care model, which eliminates third party insurance and helps to restore the therapeutic relationship between physician and patient. Access to Performance Medicine involves a monthly membership fee. However, depending on your health insurance coverage you may be able to use HAS/FSA funds to pay for some of your fees.

DO I STILL NEED TO HAVE HEALTH INSURANCE?

Yes. We strongly recommend that you maintain insurance (and/or Medicare). Medical insurance is designed for unpredictable, expensive events that affects your health, such as surgery, emergency care, and hospitalization. Insurance provides important financial protection should any of these unforeseen scenarios arise.

CAN YOU STILL SEE ME IF I AM ON MEDICARE?

Certainly. We have opted-out Medicare, which means neither our practice nor the member can submit a claim to Medicare for reimbursement for primary care. Due to national regulations those who are enrolled in Medicare are required to sign a yearly contract with their Performance Physician stating they will not bill Medicare for any Performance Medicine services. Of course, a Medicare recipient would still be free to use their Medicare insurance to pay for services from other doctors, such as specialists.

IS BLOOD WORK, IMAGING, OR OTHER SPECIALIZED TESTING COVERED?

No, this is not included. However, many tests are covered partially or fully by health insurance. We also work to guarantee lower out-of-pocket costs for medications and lab tests.

DO MY VISITS HAVE TO OCCUR IN PERSON?

Core to any therapeutic alliance is trust and mutual respect. We prefer to do parts of our initial 360 Assessment and Performance Plan design sessions in person. Otherwise, we provide the majority of care by phone, email, text, and virtual visits.

WHAT IF I NEED CARE URGENTLY?

Performance Medicine is designed to provide preventive and proactive care, not sick care. If you are experiencing a medical emergency, call 911 immediately. For urgent problems that are not emergencies, you can contact your Performance Physician during regular business hours. If appropriate, they can direct you to the appropriate urgent care.

WHAT IF I NEED TO SEE A SPECIALIST?

Our comprehensive training plus the benefit of time allows us to handle many of your non-urgent healthcare needs. And we maintain a referral network of best in class specialists to help handle and optimize your unique needs.

I’m Ready. How do I get Started?

Register. During your complimentary consultation, we will do our best to answer any additional questions.