The very last pop-up day of 2019 has been announced.
We opened the schedule yesterday, and it is already half full.

If you would like a spot, don't delay- this day will fill fast and then we will start a waitlist (those on the waitlist are pretty much always worked in).
Call to reserve: 541-963-4068

Location: Crossroads Health & Nutrition Clinic, 704 Adams Ave, La Grande, OR 97850

For the full details on our Prolotherapy Pop-Up clinics, please see this page.

Our July date is Tuesday the 16th but has been full (with a waitlist) for several weeks.

The next two days have been released, are currently being scheduled, and are filling up fast:
Monday Sept. 9th and Tuesday Sept. 10th.

As always, if you would like a spot, don't delay.
Call to reserve: 541-963-4068

Location: Crossroads Health & Nutrition Clinic, 704 Adams Ave, La Grande, OR 97850

For the full details on our Prolotherapy Pop-Up clinics, please see this page.

As of this writing, there is one last slot for our 6/18 event.
If you would like to claim it for yourself, don't delay, call to reserve: 541-963-4068

Due to massive interest, our 2nd event will be held Tuesday July 16th:
 9:00 am - 5:30 pm
Crossroads Health & Nutrition Clinic, 704 Adams Ave, La Grande, OR 97850

Again, if you would like to participate, don't delay because we are just announcing this and that day is already half booked up.
Call to reserve: 541-963-406

For the full details on our Prolotherapy Pop-Up clinics, please see this page.

Further details on this event can be found in the flyers below and on the event page here:
https://www.facebook.com/events/433896737400479/

SCH's Prolotherapy Pop-Up Clinics are expanding locations!
Now not just held in the Willamette Valley, we are excited to announce our first ever Eastern Oregon prolo pop up!

We just announced this pop-up and already most of the spots are taken.
Don't delay, call to reserve your time: 541-963-4068

Tuesday, June 18th, 9:00 am - 5:30 pm
Crossroads Health & Nutrition Clinic, 704 Adams Ave, La Grande, OR 97850

Full details here:
https://www.facebook.com/events/363054151002243/

Prolotherapy Pop-Up clinics continue to be successful and due to community request we now have an April date scheduled (if you're new to this crazy-sounding idea, see this page).
Our next one will be Friday, April 26th, at MCSF (their terrific new location: 2355 Hyacinth St NE Salem).
Nab your time slot on this event page:
https://www.facebook.com/events/441109973124679/
Generally we have 6 slots open (but have made room on higher demand nights).  Just follow the link above to let us know what time you want.  See you there!

Our Prolotherapy Pop-Up clinics have been very successful and due to community request we now have a February date scheduled (if you're new to this crazy-sounding idea, see this page).
Our next one will be in two weeks, Weds. Feb. 13th, at MCSF (their terrific new location: 2355 Hyacinth St NE Salem).
Nab your time slot on this event page:
https://www.facebook.com/events/2253757718230132
Generally we have 6 slots open (but have made room on higher demand nights).  Just follow the link above to let us know what time you want.  See you there!

Our Prolotherapy Pop-Up clinics have been very successful and are continuing on in the new year (if you're new to this crazy-sounding idea, see this page).
Our next one will be next week, Weds. the 16th, at MCSF (their terrific new location: 2355 Hyacinth St NE Salem).
Nab your time slot on this event page:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1069678263218594/www.fahttps://www.facebook.com/events/1069678263218594/cebook.com/events/1069678263218594/
There are still some of the earlier and later times available... see you there!

This Weds evening, we will be holding our last Prolotherapy Pop-Up clinic of the year. 
We will again be at MCSF, and is open to the whole community. 
Sign up by selecting a time on the event page:   https://www.facebook.com/events/277004129667369/
If you have any questions about our Prolo Pop-Up events, you may find the answer here: https://www.santiamhealth.org/prolo-pop-up-clinic.html
Thank you community!

This isn't meant to sound harsh, but it's going to be.
"Insurance" as we know it in this country, that 3rd party system that patients pay for, who then pay for medical care, is bankrupting our country.  Some years slowly it seems, other years more rapidly.
We literally could not do what we do at these Pop-Ups if we took insurance.
Sound a little hyperbolic?
Let me explain.

I'm Dr. Angela Cortal, who provides the prolotherapy at these Pop-Up clinics.
So, if we took insurance, this is what it would look like:
1) We'd have to hire staff to schedule and take your insurance ahead of time, in order to verify coverage (P.S. prolotherapy is never covered by insurance anyway)- thus increasing the rates we charge (not only paying employees, but now paying for stocked offices for them to work).
2) We'd have to also hire staff to collect co-pays, co-insurances, someone to discuss with you your coverage (do you really want to use your insurance since it has a high deductible?)- further increasing costs.
3)  Then there would need to be additional staff to bill out these claims to the insurance, call to follow up when we don't hear anything, appeal wrongful lack of reimbursement (doctor-speak for not getting paid), invoice patients (again and again until that visit 5 months ago is finally paid)- further increasing costs.

I have worked in a predominantly insurance-based private practice for 6 years. 
It is like this, but worse.  This is the reality of our healthcare system.

By taking insurance, it would defeat the whole purpose of us being able to afford to give generous discounts to those facing medical/financial hardship since we have donations from so many community partners.  They see the good we are looking to spread and want to join in (so then paying 100% for rent, utilities, medical supplies, etc would also further increase costs).

Insurance, as we know it, inherently makes medical unaffordable in this country.

Did I unleash this diatribe on the innocent questioner?
No.
I just said that not taking insurance is how we provide affordable care.

If you really want to see a glimpse into our side of things (our being the medical service provider), take a read of the following article that I wanted to post in its entirety: if restaurants ran like clinics, this is what would happen.

Although it was written in 2009, it is just as timely.  More so, as so many more negative impacts to people receiving healthcare have become a reality, due to insurance rules.

From: https://idealmedicalpractices.typepad.com/ideal_medical_practices/2009/02/how-do-doctors-get-paid-.htmlidealmedicalpractices.typepad.com/ideal_medical_practices/2009/02/how-do-doctors-get-paid-.html


February 21, 2009
How do doctors get paid?

Imagine going to your favorite restaurant.  You are greeted at the door by the hostess, who seats you and takes your drink order.  You order through your favorite waiter, Andrew, who recommends the special of the day: prime rib with a dinner salad and a chocolate torte for dessert. Soon after, the food is brought out and it is delicious!  You have time to enjoy your food.  You then receive the bill and pay for your meal, returning to your home satisfied, all your dining needs met.  Let’s say, for simplicity's sake, you paid $75 for this meal: $50 for the steak, $10 for the salad and $15 for the dessert.

A change then occurs in the restaurant industry.  A new form of eating out has been adopted.  Your favorite restaurant has now contracted with over 30 different ”restaurant insurance companies.”  
Anticipating another pleasant dining experience, your return to the restaurant with your new “subscribers card.” You pay your $5 “copay.” You sit in the foyer of the restaurant. You wait an hour, even though you made reservations.  A harried Andrew greets you and quickly takes your order after you briefly glance at the menu.  The food arrives at your table.  As you take your second bite, Andrew informs you that “your time is up” and the table is reserved for another party.  You are escorted outside with your hastily boxed left-overs.
What has happened to the restaurant?  Behind the scenes, the restaurant owner has learned some tough realities of the “new system.”  During the first month of taking insurance, the owner sends a form to the insurance company requesting payment for the $75 steak dinner: $50 for the steak, $10 for the salad and $15 for the torte.  The contract with the insurance company already states that they will only pay $45 for the $50 steak, but the owner decides that the extra customers brought to the restaurant by contracting with this insurance company will more than off-set this small loss.
The first attempt at collecting the $75 dollars for the full meal is returned unpaid with the note that it was rejected due to a “coding error.”  The forms for payment from the insurance company require the owner to list the parts of the meal, not by name, but by the numerical codes. The owner had listed the salad by the wrong numerical code.  No suggestions for the correct code are offered, so the restaurant owner purchases a series of books, at a cost of $500, to learn how to assign the correct code to the different parts of the meals.  These books will need to be bought annually due to the constant changing of the code numbers. After 30 minutes of study, the owner realizes the dinner salad should be coded as a 723.13, not the723.1 the owner originally put on the form.  The salad, it turns out, needed to have two digits after the decimal point, indicating that it was a dinner salad, and not a “main course” salad.  The owner mails the corrected form.
In response to the second request for payment, the insurance company does not send a check, but a detailed questionnaire:  Was garlic used in seasoning the steak?  Was it necessary to use garlic for this particular recipe?  Did the restaurant ask for permission to use garlic from the insurance company before serving the steak? Why was salt, a less expensive alternative, not used instead? The owner submits the answers, emphasizing that the garlic is part of a secret family recipe that made the restaurant famous.  
The owner waits another week (it has now been 3 weeks since the dinner was served).  The check arrives three and a half weeks after the meal was served.  The check is for $20 and states that it is specifically for the steak.  The check also comes with a letter stating that no billing of the patron may occur for the salad, but no other explanation is enclosed.  No mention is made of the $15 dessert.
The now frustrated restaurant owner calls the provider service number listed in the contract. After five separate phone calls to five different numbers (The harried voice behind phone call number four explains that the insurance company has merged with another insurance company and the phone numbers had all changed last week, sorry for the inconvenience…), the owner gets to ask why, when the contract says the steak will be paid at $45, has the check only been written for $20?  And what happened to the payment for the $10 salad and the $15 dessert?  
As it turns out, this particular patron’s insurance contract only pays $45 when the patron has reached their deductible, which this patron has not at this time.  The remaining portion of payment for the steak must now be billed by the restaurant to the patron directly.
The $10 for the salad would have been paid if the patron had ordered it on a different day, but, per page 35 in the contract, because it was billed on the same day as the steak, it is considered to be part of the payment for the steak and no extra money can be collected from the patron or the insurance company.  
The dessert, the owner learns, should have had a “modifier” number put with its particular billing code when billed with the steak and the salad.
Realizing that the insurance billing is quite a bit harder than anticipated, the restaurant owner hires a company, who is paid 5% of any money collected to specifically make sure these coding errors do not occur again and follow up on payment rejections.  For an additional $99 per month, the billing company will “scrub” the forms submitted for payment to make sure specific clerical errors will not cause future delays in payment.  
The owner now must lay off the hostess and the bus boy to pay the billing company, so these duties are now added to the waiter’s other responsibilities.
In the meantime, the restaurant owner has also had the waiter take on the job of answering the phones due to the now high volume of phone calls from patrons questioning why they are receiving bills for meals they ate over two months ago, and why did their insurance company not pay for this portion of the meal?  This extra work is now resulting in longer times patrons must wait to be seated, and grumblings from the waiters who “were not hired or trained to do this kind of work.” 

The owner now realizes that, although the dinner originally cost $75 to make, only $25 has been paid. The remaining $30 billed to the patron is now in its third mailing, with the first two requests for payment going unanswered by the patron.  The restaurant owner realizes a collection agency must be employed in order to have any hope of receiving any portion of payment from the patron.
Each meal served now costs at least an additional $20 due to the added overhead of the billing company, coding books, and the collection agency.  These added expenses have nothing to do with cooking food or providing any direct service to the restaurant’s customers.
Service to the restaurant’s patrons has been compromised with these changes as well. The owner has now over-extended the waiter, who was an excellent waiter, but is now taking on the roles of host, phone answering and table bussing.
In order to even meet the costs of providing fine dining, the restaurant owner now must seat twice as many patrons in the same amount of time.  
What was once an outstanding business that focused on fine dining and customer service has now been turned into a business in the business of trying to get paid.

Alas, I wish this were a fictional tale, but it is not.  The only fictional portion is that this is not your favorite restaurant, but your favorite doctor’s office, which is responsible not for meeting your dining needs, but those of your health.
 

Megan Lewis, M.D.
A family physician in rural Colorado.