Financial Considerations
The Washington Institute of Natural Medicine’s (WINM) management and staff are sensitive to health care costs, financial difficulties, and those in a low-income status. Typically doctors of Naturopathy in the D.C. metro area charge between $200.00 to $300.00 for an initial visit, spending between 1 ½ and 2 hours. Medical doctors, practicing alternative medicine, will charge as much as $3,000.00 to work up a case. In order to meet the needs of the average consumer WINM staff tries to set prices, in a way that can be more affordable.
Our doctors charge between $120.00 and $145.00, which is reasonable for the amount of time spent evaluating a case. Typically our doctors spend approximately 1 ½ to 2 hours in an initial exam. For those who can not afford our doctors fees, our Holistic Practitioners, Naturopathy Assistants, and Interns charge between $30.00 to $75.00 per visit. These practitioners act under the supervisions of the doctors on staff.
Based upon over 100 years of combined experience, our doctors of Naturopathy have observed that the low-income clients tend to be the most needy. We sincerely acknowledge that but our office has a monthly overhead to meet and survives only through fees received from clients, classes and remedy purchases. We receive no government subsidy nor insurance reimbursements. Therefore minimal fees are necessary. Our staff whole-heartedly cares to help those in need and would gladly do our job without financial reimbursement, but within our economic conditions we have financial obligations.
Insurance: WINM does not directly deal with insurance companies, although some of our practitioners participate in discount plans. Check with your insurance company’s web site to see if it provides a discount plan. If you see one of our practitioners listed please print out the verification from the web site and bring it into our office for authorization.
In some cases you may be able to receive insurance reimbursement for our services. Please notify our office staff that you will need an insurance form for submission. In addition we have seen reimbursement for care when the client’s primary physician writes a referral for the service. This referral can be attached to the WINM insurance form for your submission. WINM does not submit any insurance forms; it is up to the client to do so.
Flex Plans: Many offices offer flex plans to their staff members, of which medical bills can be deducted from. Flex plans are quite favorable in reimbursing bill for alternative medicine. In many cases just a receipt is needed. At times specific forms or letters may be necessary. Please check with your workplace to determine what is needed.
Cost of Homeopathics: Our remedies run from approximately $6 to $20. A few remedies can be higher. The number of remedies selected are directly reflected by the number of complaints the client may have. The more complaints that need treatment the more remedies the client may need.
Our remedies have proven to be less expensive than other doctor’s offices. The remedies we charge $21.00 have been seen for $32.00 in other offices. When selecting a price, of a remedy, we try to fit it into the average consumer’s budget.
Supplement Costs: We only select remedies that are needed based upon the consultation and exam finding. The final decision is the clients. We do strongly suggest a cleansing remedy with every treatment plan since treatment of symptoms will not work as well when the body is not cleansed of toxins. As the body heals it produces toxins from cellular metabolism as a result it needs assistance with cleansing.