Frequently Asked Questions
Whether you call it Concierge Medicine, Executive Healthcare, Boutique Practice, or Membership Medicine, for us Personal Medicine is relationship medicine because the doctor-patient relationship has center stage. The doctor and the patient work closely in the interests of building the patient’s best health. There is true collaboration, shared understanding, and a joint focus on wellness.
Your health is personal, unique to you, and essential to every aspect of your life. That is why personalized care is the cornerstone of good health as well as the cornerstone of how we practice medicine. With a limited number of patients we are able to spend more time, devote more energy, and be more involved and accessible than the typical primary-care physician. By becoming a member of Cornerstone’s personal medicine practice, you get a broader range of leading-edge services that are based on the latest medical knowledge and utilize advanced diagnostic tools.
Yes. Our service is not an insurance product. We do accept insurance to pay for covered services, but our fees are for services not covered by insurance. Insurance has a role, but we don’t believe insurance companies should always be the one deciding what kind of care you do or do not need.
We believe you can. We would be happy to talk with you about it, however we advise you to also consult your tax advisor.
Yes. We emphasize preventive and proactive care and we also believe that it is almost never too late to benefit from this kind of approach. One of our goals is to help our patients navigate the barriers and unpleasantness sometimes associated with our healthcare system. For people with complex or chronic diseases, we often assume a role of advocate or guide not only with the multitude of health care providers that may be involved in your care, but also with the various agencies that can be involved with complex chronic disease management.
When your physician is on vacation or attending a continuing medical education course, a back-up physician will be made available if needed.
Yes. When you join the practice, you can contact us anytime in a number of different ways: phone, email, text, and patient portal.
Yes. We make house calls when they are medically necessary. If your circumstances require an abundance of house calls, please raise that issue with us and we can discuss developing a customized membership for you.
Yes. While our goal is to keep you out of the hospital, if hospitalization becomes necessary we want to be involved in your care there as well. As you know there are many hospitals in Hampton Roads, so we encourage you to talk to us about this.
We are very concerned and vigilant about your privacy. In particular, we are highly sensitive to information that is shared either directly or indirectly with the government or insurance carriers. Our belief is that when patients elect to aggressively search for the earliest signs of disease in order to prevent catastrophic health events, they should not be penalized for their efforts by life or health insurers. While it is always your choice, at times we may suggest that you not use your insurance for certain things simply to avoid creating a claim history that distorts your health risk profile in the eyes of insurers. We’d be happy to discuss this further with you. Our Notice of Privacy Practices can be found here.