I created my practice model NOT to make money.  Some previous patients I cared for while employed by “big hospital” have stated the annual retainer is too expensive for them to continue with my collaboration. Others have congratulated on my success in this new lucrative business model. I am not ashamed to admit, to synthesize steps to a disease free lifestyle comes at the cost of time/effort and ultimately money. I believe if you spend enough time with another human, ask the appropriate questions and have a wide fund of knowledge, any life can be improved with less suffering. NOTE: even with the liberty of longer patient visits (60-90 minutes vs 14.1-24.6 minutes) the virtual collaborations must be guided effectively with the correct questions, suggestions and personal goal setting.  To just have long discussions is the job of a confidant, therapist or relative. No doubt that talking about a stressor is therapeutic BUT implementation of change will always be the final goal for modifying disease.

The doctor visit has always been the cornerstone of getting healthy. An annual wellness exam in Western medicine has boiled down to a pharmaceutical based practice that focuses on a symptom and deploys an algorithm based on prescription rescues. Every human knows if you do not address the root cause of a problem, it will escalate and grow in complexity always ending up with the same outcome.

Take this business owner of a landscaping company I saw in the immediate care. He came in for back pain and knew he needed a muscle relaxer, an antiinflammatory and some pain medicine. (Had same issue the year before) but when I engaged him to find out about core strength, sleep habit, current weight previous interventions, he said;

-“I eat clean”

-“I walk alot and lift weights”

-“I sleep well”

Upon further elaboration:

-he eats TOO MUCH clean food

-he does no exercises to prevent back spasm

-his sleep is fragmented from urinating 3x a night

Perception of self is skewed to allow bad behavior to continue because the rescue is always implemented with a visit to the doctor. Medicines are great short cuts but you can’t

-outexercise a bad diet

-apply what you did at 20 and expect it to work at 60

-cut out a cancer but still continue smoking.

How do you impart awareness on the trajectory of life and synthesis of the data to form a personal plan?  Data available to humanity is accelerating to a speed that had been unfathomable and if you don’t keep up with the new information you can give outdated advise. Required investment in learning is not just taking a Continuing Medical Education course….it’s being open to admit all humans are individual and you cannot apply general concepts to the person in the room and expect the same outcome (The Ecological Fallacy).

Which brings me back to my practice. I love seeing success in people. It can look like the expression of joy on a hikers face when we summit 14000 feet. It can be the discussion of your “we got your cholesterol down without a statin”. It can be the fibromyalgia patient who is suddenly exercising with NO pain flare up!

General Patton: It is the spirit of the men who follow and of the man who leads that gains the victory.

I call my patient appointments a collaboration between the person who ‘follows’ and the person who ‘leads’. My time is best spent providing resources to achieve the victory over suffering and disease. Knowledge can provide you with a map but it must be created with waypoints specific to the map-reader. If your doctor is creating a map in 14.1-24.6 minutes ….IT WILL NOT BE PERSONALIZED!

The reason my practice charges an annual fee is to allow for more time with designing, applying and redesigning lifestyle change. Even after the 60-90minute visit I am still reconvening to envision the next collaboration in a few months so see if we made progress. The only reason I would prescribe rescue prescriptions is …to buffer the symptoms while we engage change (using nutrition, exercise, calming practice and sleep/recovery)

Membership Based Medicine Details

The annual fee is paid when a new patient is ready to commit. Since there are patients who have never paid a retainer fee for personalized care, I allow for a…

-Test Drive Visit

A non commitment investment in personalized primary care. The visit will entail review of life achievements and setbacks, prior treatments, current baseline testing discussion and a…

-Narrative

The plan I put together after the Test Drive Virtual Meeting. These are the steps to be implemented with the expectation that perfection will not be achieved overnight. After the Test Drive a patient is offered a membership to the Practice. If not accepted we part ways and you can continue my plan with your own coaches/doctors/therapists but no further Test Drive Visits will be allowed.

-Patient/Athletes

I don’t expect perfection from anyone that joins the practice BUT I do expect implementation of the ideas I create.  If initial suggestions don’t work, then we re-design and re-apply. The answer to suffering will always be complex and requires small frequent change (unless you are facing death). I do expect members to meet with me AT LEAST 3 x annually and in some patient/athletes we need every 2 months since perfection needs to be “chiseled out of marble”. In the rare case, urgent meetings be used for the emergencies but with that degree we will be using the hospital for specialty suggestions (ie oncology or cardiology).

-Insurance billing for our time together

With the 60-90 minutes of collaboration, I will use a medical insurance billing company to request reimbursement from medicare or personal insurance. Possession of insurance is not a guarantee our practice will be reimbursed for services rendered and you may be responsible for payment. I do not believe it is ethical to become wealthy from the suffering of others (more correctly- the reversal of suffering). I did not create Herbal411 to be a reproducible business model, I created it because people need help.

I honestly feel if I can change the course of a single person’s suffering, we not only save a life but we course correct all the generations to follow.

I am altruistic and top priority is to improve outcome of the individual

BUT

I will not invest in you if you don’t invest in yourself.

DrRic

12 30 2024