| APM Pain Philosophies |
FAIR PRICE PHILOSOPHY- APM believes in accepting insurances as in-network. We understand people work hard for their money and should not have to pay 1/4 of their entire years wages for a simple single spinal injection procedure. We are aware some physicians think it perfectly acceptable to find ways to grossly overcharge patients, up to $650 for new patient visits, and $185 for a nurse practitioner to see a patient for a simple 15 minute follow-up visit. We also believe this is wrong, and is an example of everything that is wrong with the practice of medicine today. APM treats patients fairly, having the lowest cost to patients of any pain clinic in the entire region. We accept all possible insurance programs with the exception of managed medicaid. We are impressed by results rather than by the richness of hardwoods in the office. We enshroud ourselves with the professional knowledge and judgement that comes with years of teaching, research, and practice rather than expensive suits. Ours is a practice that eschews the superficial window dressings of expensive surroundings and 2 minute physician visits, instead embracing the hearts and souls of our patients that suffer. TRANSPARENCY- APM believes in giving patients the information they need to make informed decisions by providing in depth information on our website about medical procedures and medications. We do not suggest that "It is not important to consider the out of pocket cost of medical treatments" as some other pain physicians do. We also give you available information about treatment options including expansive offerings on our website. No bait and switch here...if you need a procedure it will be done at office rates in our office rather than switching you to an out of network surgery center owned by a physician. COST EFFECTIVE THERAPIES- APM offers cost effective treatments that are affordable and proven rather than billing patients thousands of dollars for treatments that are experimental. Certainly there are therapies that are on the leading edge, but the patients must be informed of the available evidence of effectiveness or lack thereof when these therapies are employed. APM keeps patients informed. Physicians that know exactly what procedure is medically indicated may refer the patient directly to our office for such therapy. In such cases, the initial consultation fee is waived and the patient is charged only for the procedure. SEDATION FOR PROCEDURES AVAILABLE- Chronic pain results in an extreme increase in pain during invasive interventional procedures. Because of this, we offer microgeneral anesthesia that has been successfully administered over 12,000 times in our AAAHC certified office surgical suites. Patients that have had procedures without sedation or with minimal sedation prefer microgeneral anesthesia by a ratio of 45 to 1. Unlike sedation provided by other pain physician offices, ours does not leave patients feeling disoriented or nauseated all day long with only rare exceptions. INTEGRATIVE COMPREHENSIVE APPROACH- Comprehensive integrated pain medicine begins with a thorough history and evaluation of records from other physicians that have treated you. Then after a directed physical exam, therapies will be proposed. We believe in utilization of medications, exercise, PT, psychology where indicated, injections, neuroablative procedures, and in some cases surgery or spinal cord stimulation. It would be rare in our practice to have patients taking only opioids without other therapies, provided these therapies are affordable. People that want only to receive narcotics will typically be discharged from our practice if other medical procedures or therapies are indicated but the patient refuses everything other than narcotics. SAFETY- Our procedures are performed in the only certified office or pain surgery center in the area. The AAAHC has granted our center the maximum certification for office anesthesia and procedures. We join the Columbus Surgery Center as the only other certified office or surgery center in the city. Our pain center also believes in maintaining the safety of our patients taking opioid narcotics through drug testing and other methods of assuring compliance and appropriate use. AVOIDANCE OF QUACK TREATMENTS- Naive physicians or those trying to make a fast buck will use treatments that are not supported by the medical literature and are generally thought to be quack treatments. The anti-ageing rage and spinal traction machines are two of the quack treatments that others have employed as methods to line their pocketbooks. APM evaluates each therapy using evidence based medicine (EBM) and Dr Whitworth makes international impact decisions regarding these therapies as the Education Director for ISIS, an international organization of pain physicians. SCREENING OF PATIENTS: Unlike pain practices that advertise in the newspaper or on radio for new patients to come to their practice direct, we have several safety and security screens out patients must meet in order to be accepted as an initial patient. We accept only approximately half of the patients referred to us for long term opioid narcotic pain medicine management. The screens help protect our current patients and our practice of medicine by weeding out those that are substance abusers and those engaged in illicit drug activities. Some of the screens employed include reviewing old medical records for history of substance abuse or being discharged from other pain clinics, state INSPECT report of all opioid prescriptions received in the past year or more, old medical records that must be provided prior to even scheduling an office visit, and being referred by another physician (insures continuity of care). Patients that are not accepted by our clinic during pre-screening will have no established medical record with us. Other pain practices that do not require referral from another physician end up with a group of drug addicts sitting in their lobby along side legitimate pain patients. We want our patients to be safe, therefore require direct referrals from other physicians. MATCHING THE BEST THERAPY TO THE PATIENT Some pain practices are a one trick pony...they have few choices available due to their lack of experience and training, but at APM we match the best therapy to the patient. Spinal cord stimulation technologies are available through three companies with three very different product lines. Since Dr Whitworth is in charge of international spinal cord stimulator conferences and is an expert in all three systems, APM selects the system to match the patient rather than simply implant a single brand like other pain practices use. We match the best minimally invasive surgical techniques whether it be one of 5 disc decompression technologies or one of several RF techniques or one of several injection techniques, some of which were invented by Dr Whitworth and are published in the medical literature. APM is no one trick pony....we have a wide array of tools available for your treatment and are experts in all of their uses. |
