Practice Information & Policies

Integrative Medicine and Psychiatry practice uses some diagnostic and treatment methods that are known as integrative, or less commonly as alternative, holistic or complementary. Some of these methods have not been accepted by consensus mainstream medicine. Some of the principles and philosophy of Dr. Parks’ Integrative Medicine and Psychiatry practice include:

1.  A person's lifestyle including his or her diet, exercise patterns, sleep habits, stresses and interpersonal relationships are believed to be directly related to the development and maintenance of illness.  Integrated Medicine and Psychiatry evaluate these factors and seeks to help the patient give up negative lifestyle patterns and establish more positive ones regardless of age or type of medical problems.

2.  Although prescription and over-the-counter medications are used when the physician believes it is necessary, an attempt is first made to use natural alternatives or products that are natural to the body.  These include nutritional supplements such as vitamins, minerals, enzymes, amino acids, essential fatty acids and herbs.

3. Because we look for imbalances in the body and for trends that may result in illness if not addressed, we sometimes order tests that may be considered by consensus mainstream medicine to be either unnecessary or of no value.  These may include tests for nutritional status, such as blood levels or functional test for vitamins or minerals, hormonal levels, tests for allergies, and use of elimination diets.  Testing for heavy metal toxicity as Mercury is done by hair, urine or stool analysis.  Intestinal function is sometimes assessed by special tests of digestion and stool analysis.

4. We believe that environmental factors may play a role in health and disease.  Some of the disease of unknown causes may be triggered or perpetuated by common environmental substances, many of which are man-made.  Individuals may very greatly in their susceptibility to various substances, so that one individual may be made deftly ill by an exposure to a substance, while another is not at all affected.  We attempted to identify offending substances and help patients to detoxify from past exposures that are affecting them.

5. We believe in a person being involved in his own health care and encourage questions, exploration and participation in decisions surrounding diagnostic and treatment procedures.  We encourage consultations with consensus mainstream medicine practitioners and use of any other means a person feels that he or she needs to help decide about their health issues.

6. We believe in the mind body spirit connection in bringing about wellness and preventing and dealing with illness.  Consequently, part of your program may involve recommendation for educational programs, counseling, or psychotherapy or other complementary types of treatments. 

7. Exercise is extremely important in maintaining health and promoting wellness as well as helping one recover from an illness.  Different types of exercise are encouraged according to ones capacity, needs and preferences. 

The above represents some of the ways that our practice may differ from other physicians' offices that you have visited.  You should also be aware of the following points:

1. Dr. Parks’ practice is exclusively an office-based consulting practice.  He does not routinely do hospital work or perform emergency medical services.  Additionally, some patients come long distances to receive care at his office.  Consequently, we strongly recommend that in addition to his care, that you maintain a relationship with one or more physicians appropriate to your condition and situation.  For example, most of you may want to have a relationship with a family physician or a pediatrician in the case of children.  Cardiac patient should have either a cardiologist or an internist or both.  Dr. Parks is happy to cooperate with any physician who is willing to work with him.  For after hours or emergency services, called 911, go to your nearest emergency room, or contact your primary care physician.

2.  Dr. Parks makes no representations, claims or guarantees that you will be helped with your medical problems or conditions by undergoing treatment with him.  However, he will do his best to help you accomplish your health care and wellness goals.

3. Most health insurance plans today have clauses, which limits coverage to "usual and customary fees for reasonable and necessary services."  Because some of the treatments used in Integrative Medicine and Psychiatry are not recognized by consensus mainstream medicine, we cannot guarantee the amount or availability of coverage for our services and treatment under your health care insurance policy.  You are responsible for payment of our charges at the time of service without regards to insurance coverage. Payment may be made by check (see#4 below), cash or credit card for services or office visits. If insurance coverage is available for the services rendered, we will be glad to provide a receipt with the required information that you can attach to an insurance claim form and mail into your insurance company. You will be responsible for the cost for any special reports and/or corrected claims that require professional time on your behalf to insurance companies or others. Dr. Parks has currently opted out of Medicare and claims cannot be submitted to Medicare for reimbursement. You are entitled to know the cost of all services and procedures in advance.  Please ask if this is not thoroughly explained to you.

^*4. Appointments and consultations are scheduled in advance for the agreed-upon amount of time.  If sessions are extended you will be responsible for any additional fees for the longer service.  As follow-up appointments and consultations are reserved for the requested amount of time, there will be a charge for any missed follow-up appointment not canceled 24 hours in advance (see #6 in our forms section for more details).  For new appointments, a confirmation deposit is required^* to schedule a new patient appointment (this is a part of the fee and not extra), which becomes non-refundable 3 business days before the appointment (for emergency Monday appointments, you would need to cancel by your scheduled time on Wednesday to avoid being charged).  Calls to the doctor outside of scheduled appointment time, lasting more than five minutes, and requiring additional service or consultation with other individuals or specialists on your behalf, will be charged as consultation time according to the amount of time utilized. The office staff or Dr. Parks is not required to remind patients of their office appointments, this is done as a courtesy only, so it is the patient's responsibility to cancel new appointments 3 business days before and to arrive to all visits.  Telephone Consultations are done for individuals that live outside the area.  These consultations for people not seen in the office are educational in nature only and not intended for treatment or diagnosis of any condition.  Any services or communications with Dr. Parks are considered confidential and any disclosure of information or records related to your care, will only be done by your authorization, request and approval.

^***Personal Checks Are Not Accepted for new patient appointments unless we have a confirmed credit card on file (the credit card the confirmation deposit was charged on) (not debit/check card).  If you do not have a credit card or debit/check card, then you can pay with cash, a cashier's check or verified money order (we verify all money orders through the post office before accepting them).  Unlike confirmed credit cards, debit/check cards will be charged before time of service (unless Dr. Parks approves otherwise).  If you can only pay with cash, a cashier's check or money order (until Dr. Parks approves use of a personal check) then this will always need to be given before time of service. 

With Follow-up appointments: Personal checks may be substituted for a check card, a cashiers check or money order upon Dr. Parks' approval.  Since a debit/check card extracts funds from an account similar to a check, but protects our office and you from bouncing fees (since a debit/check card with too low funds will be declined) a debit/check card is always preferred over a check.  We do not accept ATM cards with pin number verification (most banks don't issue these anymore). 

^*In order to confirm a new patient appointment if you do not have a card and need to pay with cash, cashier's check or money order, we would need for you to drop off the deposit as soon as possible (always call before coming over for we are not set up for walk in appointments -- you may also drop off your deposit in our door slot (make sure to attach your name and address to the deposit)), for we usually cannot book tentative new patient appointments (due to the time involved) since these may quickly be scheduled over by a confirmed appointment due to our busy schedule.  As long as you give us 3 business days notice if you need to cancel that appointment, we will mail that deposit back to you (however, if it is cash you would need to pick this up after signing a cash release form).  If you cannot leave a deposit then you may call the day of the appointment and if we have nothing scheduled, we can always try to fit you in (please call an hour before (or before you leave if traveling) to make sure no one has scheduled that time slot -- once we know you're on your way, we'll hold that time for you if it's still available).  We have found that this policy has drastically cut down our no show rate, benefiting all of Dr. Parks' patients who may need those appointment slots.
 

5. For our follow-up patients: To minimize on confusion and delay, if patients of Dr. Parks are running out of their prescriptions before their next scheduled appointment, patients must call the pharmacy to find out if there is a refill and if not then request the prescription refill through the pharmacy.  Patients do not need to call Dr. Parks' office for prescription refill requests since their pharmacy will take care of this by calling or faxing our office with the correct information.  The staff of Dr. Parks will try their best to let patients know Dr. Parks had okayed the script.  All new scripts can only be done during a patient's appointment.