Before incorporating ART into my practice, the methods I used to determine the body's needs were based on a person's symptoms, expensive lab work, and my knowledge of biochemistry, physiology, and nutrition. Now with ART, it is possible to quickly, accurately, and comprehensively assess the root causal factors of your health problems and come up with a tailor-made individualized protocol.
Integrated Care Center, ICC is a Bio Regulatory Medicine Center. We designed an effective and unique program for our patients. BIOCHECKUP is a program for early diagnosis of pathophysiological imbalances associated with lifestyle and environmental diseases. Prompt diagnosis of early-stage metabolic imbalances, before they progress into overt disease, will motivate you to take appropriate steps; such steps can reverse disease progression and restore optimal health.
We also specialize in thorough detoxification of the body. We believe that toxins accumulate every day in our body due to our lifestyle, (food that we eat daily, oral/ dental problems, environmental factors Wi-Fi and radiation, and state of mind like stress) these are some factors that can affect our body’s normal regulation.
Every patient who would like to book an appointment with us has to understand the laid protocols by Dr. Mai. She has devoted herself to studying the most effective way of treatment. That is why Integrated Care Center has been founded because she wants to bring a different kind of approach to treating patients. Detailed explanations will be discussed in the center during your 1st visit.
If you would like to get a head start and be prepared for your first consultation with Dr. Mai Al Shamsi, below we will detail several of the key steps to be done before your appointment. Doing these in advance will allow Dr. Mai to prepare your treatment plan faster. You are required to fill out the health questionnaire mentioned in the first point before coming to the clinic.
You are under no obligation to purchase nutritional supplements at our clinic. As a service to you, we make nutritional supplements available in our center. We purchase these products only from manufacturers who have gained our confidence through considerable research and experience. We determine quality by considering:
The brands of supplements that we carry in our facility are those that meet our high standards and tend to produce predictable results.
While these supplements may come at a higher financial cost than those found on the shelves of pharmacies or health food stores, the value must also include assurance of their purity, quality, bioavailability (ability to be properly absorbed and utilized by the body), and effectiveness.
The chief reason we make these products available is to ensure quality. You are not guaranteed the same level of quality when you purchase your supplements from the general marketplace.
We are not suggesting that such products have no value; however, given the lack of stringent testing requirements for dietary supplements, product quality varies widely.
If you have concerns about this issue, please discuss them with our staff.
According to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, as amended, Section 201(g) (1), the term drug is defined as an “article intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease.” Technically, vitamins, minerals, trace elements, amino acids, herbs, or homeopathic remedies are not classified as drugs. However, these substances can have significant effects on physiology and must be used rationally.
In this center, we provide nutritional counseling and make individualized recommendations regarding the use of these substances to upgrade the quality of foods in a patient’s diet and to supply nutrition to support the physiological and biomechanical processes of the human body. Although these products may also be suggested with a specific therapeutic purpose in mind, their use is chiefly designed to support given aspects of metabolic function.
The use of nutritional supplements may be safely recommended for patients already using pharmaceutical medications (drugs), but some potentially harmful interactions may occur. For this reason, it is important to keep all of your healthcare providers fully informed about all medications and nutritional supplements, herbs, or hormones you may be taking.
Some patients have asked why we charge for follow-up consultations regarding lab results and exams, as well as for telephone consultations when other doctors do not. Our doctor (Dr. Mai) are not salaried, as are doctors who are employed in large clinics and hospitals and whose salaries are partially subsidized by expensive diagnostic and surgical procedures and hospital fees.
Our doctor's pay is based solely on the time and services they provide. Like all non-salaried professionals, including lawyers and accountants, our doctors must charge for their time so we can afford to provide you with care and remain in business. In general, we charge only for our face-to-face time with you.
Our Medical team spends considerable non-reimbursed time each week consulting with each other (and other International providers) regarding your care, reviewing your records, and meeting with staff to improve the quality of our services.
In follow-up visits, our doctor spends significant time discussing your results with you. It is entirely different to discuss the results of more complex functional evaluations and to recommend practical lifestyle and dietary strategies that may help to prevent under lying issues. Patients often complain that conventional doctors do little to nothing in the way of truly preventive medicine. We want you to understand that preventive health care takes considerable time and expertise on the part of the doctor and that someone has to pay for that time and expertise.
Many people who have contacted our center for our services have asked us why we do not bill insurance directly. We fully understand the financial challenge this presents to some patients, and we wish there were a way for us to bill your insurance company. Unfortunately, at this time, there is not.
Here is why: When clinics bill health insurance companies directly, the doctors are required to become participating providers. The doctors must sign a contract that allows the insurance company to determine which services they will and will not provide and how much they can charge for those services. In general, insurance companies are not focused on any preventive or wellness services. They are heavily invested in the conventional model of health care that too often relies on drugs and surgery.
We are committed to the functional medicine model that addresses the underlying causes of your symptoms with specific nutritional and lifestyle recommendations. A participating provider must agree to accept the fees the insurance company establishes, regardless of whether the fees are reasonable or applicable to that practice. In general, these established fees cover the actual cost of the briefest (and we believe the lowest quality) care.
Doctors who are participating providers are required to accept discounted fees for their services, and they cannot bill the patient for the difference between their fee and what the insurance company will pay. Therefore, the center must write off the difference, often as much as 50% or more of the doctor’s fee for service. At the same time, the participating provider’s office overhead costs have increased dramatically because of the staff, time, and equipment necessary for processing and tracking claims.
In today’s healthcare environment, the actual cost for doctors to provide services continues to rise, while the percentage of reasonable fees that insurance payments cover is declining. At the same time, the profits of health insurance companies and the salaries of their top executives continue to rise to record levels.
Most doctors and clinics cope with the requirements of being participating providers by keeping their office visits very brief so that they can see many patients within a given time frame. When their clinic becomes unprofitable, it must be supported by another institution. Most primary care medical clinics are not self-sustaining financially and have had to merge with hospitals whose expensive, high-tech surgical and diagnostic procedures are priced to keep the clinics afloat financially. Unfortunately, we have found that we cannot be participating providers in the insurance networks and provide the time-intensive, well-researched, expert-intensive care that we do.
