Our Financial Policy

Willow Clinic of Natural Medicine is a self-pay practice (also called “out-of-pocket”). Payments can be made in the form of cash, check, Zelle or credit/debit card (3.6 % fee for card payments). Payment is due at the time of service. Although we do not bill your insurance directly, we are happy to provide you with a properly coded invoice (also called a “Superbill”) so that you may submit to your insurer for reimbursement.

Our providers are considered “Out-of-network” for all insurance plans. The amount of reimbursement will depend upon your individual insurance plan’s reimbursement policy for “Out-of-network” providers. We advise that you check with your insurance plan regarding “Out-of-network” coverage of services prior to your visit with us.

Services associated with our office, including provider visits, supplements, and laboratory testing, can be submitted under your health savings account (HSA) or Healthcare Reimbursement Account (HRA). We can provide a letter of medical necessity if requested by your HSA or HRA.

If you have any questions please contact us at: (630) 426-9064 or willowcnm@gmail.com

Basic Fee Information

For full transparency, we have decided to publish our fee schedule. Fees are calculated by the hour - $150 per hour for telemedicine, $250/hour for in-person visits within 10 miles of Lombard and $300/hour for in-person visits further than 10 miles. For telemedicine, the patient pays for however much time they need. For in-person visits, there is an hour minimum visit due to travel time. Many of our patients will be seen with a family member (or multiple family members) and thus share the required hour minimum.

Fees are periodically updated - these fees are current as of 3/1/2023

The benefit of this structure is that you can decide what services are most benefitting you and we can focus our time on those services. In-person services include myofascial release and muscle work, spinal and extremity adjusting (chiropractic manipulation), acupuncture, visceral manipulation, prescribing herbal medicine and homeopathy, dietary and lifestyle counseling, guided meditation and addressing any health questions you have.

An Explanation of Our Financial Policy

As doctors and staff, we are passionate about what we do, and we feel that we have a calling to provide as many people as possible with the highest quality natural health care possible. Just as our services are unique, our financial policies set us apart from mainstream medicine. We have prepared this handout to answer questions you or your family members may have about the rationale for our financial policies. If, after reading this, you still have questions, feel free to speak with our staff.

Why We Do Not Accept Insurance Assignment

Many people who have contacted our office for our services have asked us why we do not bill insurance directly when other medical and chiropractic providers do. We fully understand the financial challenge this presents to some patients, and we wish there were a way for us to bill your insurance company. Unfortunately, at this time, there is not. Here is why:

When clinics bill health insurance companies directly, the doctors are required to become participating providers. The doctors must sign a contract that allows the insurance company to determine which services they will and will not provide and how much they can charge for those services. In general, insurance companies are not focused on any preventive or wellness services. They are heavily invested in the conventional model of health care that too often relies on drugs and surgery. We are committed to the natural medicine model that addresses the underlying causes of your symptoms with specific nutritional and lifestyle recommendations.

A participating provider must agree to accept the fees the insurance company establishes, regardless of whether the fees are reasonable or applicable to that practice. In general, these established fees cover the actual cost of the briefest (and, we believe, the lowest quality) care. Doctors who are participating providers are required to accept discounted fees for their services, and they cannot bill the patient for the difference between their fee and what the insurance company will pay. Therefore, the clinic must write off the difference, often as much as 50% or more of the doctor’s fee for service. At the same time, the participating provider’s office overhead costs have increased dramatically because of the staff, time, and equipment necessary for processing and tracking claims.

In today’s healthcare environment, the actual cost for doctors to provide services continues to rise, while the percentage of reasonable fees that insurance payments cover is declining. At the same time, the profits of health insurance companies and the salaries of their top executives continue to rise to record levels.

Most doctors and clinics cope with the requirements of being participating providers by keeping their office visits very brief, so that they can see many patients within a given time frame. When their clinic becomes unprofitable, it must be supported by another institution. Most primary care medical clinics are not self-sustaining financially and have had to merge with hospitals whose expensive, high-tech surgical and diagnostic procedures are priced to keep the clinics afloat financially. Most chiropractic clinics keep office visits very brief and see many people per hour. Ironically, some of our patients complain about their extremely brief and unsatisfactory office visits in other chiropractic and medical practices, while at the same time expressing frustration that we do not accept insurance. Unfortunately, we have found that we cannot be participating providers in the insurance networks and provide the time-intensive, well-researched, expert intensive care that we do.

Thank you to Dr. Jack Weber and Carolina Clinic of Natural Medicine for permission to borrow and adapt the above financial policy explanation.