FAQs
Please see the list of frequently asked questions about who we are and our services. If you have further questions please give us a call and we’ll gladly assist you.
Naturopathic medicine has existed for over a century. It is a unique system of medicine that takes the whole person into account, discovers the root cause of illness, and preferentially uses natural therapies to encourage the body to heal. At Aspen Integrative Medical Center, all of our physicians are licensed naturopathic physicians in the state of AZ. We use our naturopathic training to diagnose, prevent and treat acute and chronic illness, restore and establish optimal health by supporting the person’s inherent self-healing process. Rather than just suppressing symptoms, naturopathic doctors work to identify underlying causes of illness, and develop personalized treatment plans to address them. Naturopathic physicians believe the least amount of force can be used in order to promote gentle, safe and long-lasting health and well-being. While our physicians at Aspen preferentially use natural methods of treatment, we frequently use conventional treatments such as pharmaceuticals if it is in the best interest of the patient.
You should choose to be a patient at Aspen because:
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- You want a doctor who will treat all of you, not just your illness. Our naturopathic physicians are trained to treat the whole person. This requires taking the time to listen and understand the genetic, environmental, and behavioral/lifestyle factors that can affect your health. At your initial appointment, you’ll spend 30-90 minutes talking with your ND, so they can understand you completely and you have ample time to ask all of your questions.
- You want personalized treatment. Our doctors understand there is no one-size-fits-all treatment that works for everybody. You are unique and thus your treatment plan should be made specifically for you. After your visit, you’ll leave the doctor’s office with an individualized treatment plan uniquely tailored to you, your health status, your health goals, and your lifestyle.
- You want to treat the root cause of an illness, not just suppress the symptoms. Sometimes having chronic fatigue, trouble sleeping, aches and pains, skin rashes, and indigestion are symptoms of a deeper underlying illness. While these symptoms can be managed with suppressive therapies like immune suppressants for example, it’s much more important to understand the “why” behind your symptoms and treat the root cause —which is the focus of naturopathic medicine.
- You want to actively participate in managing your own health. Our doctors will help you learn what your body needs to be well and stay healthy. Patients have the opportunity to feel empowered and hopeful when they understand and are actively engaged in managing their own health.
- You have tried most conventional medical options for diagnosing and treating a health condition AND you are not getting better. Certain chronic health conditions that have symptoms such as fatigue, headaches, neuropathy, or gastrointestinal distress can be difficult to diagnose and treat, and can benefit from a holistic approach. Our doctors use diagnostic tools common in conventional medicine, such as detailed health, disease, and prescription drug histories, physical exams, and targeted laboratory testing and imaging. Our doctors also consider detailed diet history, lifestyle habits and choices, exercise history, and social/emotional factors to assess patients’ needs. These approaches can open doors to treatment and get you the results you are looking for.
- You have chronic pain and don’t want to use pharmaceutical drugs such as ibuprofen, acetaminophen, or highly addictive opioids to manage it forever. Pain that lasts six months or more is more complex than acute pain and requires a holistic, long-term approach to manage. Our doctors are trained to work with you to determine which combination of therapies will work best for you to heal or manage your pain safely, so that you can avoid pain medications, avoid surgery, and resume daily activities
Our naturopathic physicians are highly trained to treat a wide variety of acute and chronic health concerns.
FULL LIST OF CONDITIONS WE COMMONLY TREAT
This includes, but is not limited to:
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- Primary care and general concerns
- Chronic fatigue
- Gastrointestinal disorders
- Autoimmune disease such as rheumatoid arthritis, Lupus, Sjogren’s
- Women’s health concerns
- Men’s health concerns
- Skin disorders and rashes
- Hypermobile spectrum disorders
- Cardiovascular disease including high cholesterol and hypertension
- Thyroid disorders
- Acute and chronic pain such as headaches, migraines, joint pain, arthritis, sciatica
- TMJ disorders
- Asthma
- Lyme disease and Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS)
- Mold and/or mycotoxin illness
- Mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS)
- Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS)
- Acute and long covid-19
- Neurodegenerative disorders and cognitive decline
- Anxiety, depression, and other mood disorders
- Traumatic brain injuries and concussions
- Environmental toxicity
- Allergies
- And much more!
Naturopathic medicine uses a wide variety of therapies for healing, including:
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- Dietary and lifestyle changes
- Botanical medicine
- Visceral manipulation
- Craniosacral therapy
- IV therapy
- Ozone therapy
- Deep tissue laser therapy
- Peptide therapy
- Hormone replacement therapy
- Regenerative joint injections such as Prolozone
- Detoxification protocols
- Vitamins and supplements
- Hydrotherapy
- Spinal adjustments
- Infrared sauna therapy
- Hyperbaric oxygen therapy
- Neurofeedback
- Medical marijuana authorizations
- Pharmaceuticals when necessary
Our naturopathic physicians specialize in standard and specialty lab testing including:
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- Bloodwork such as CBC, CMP, lipids, thyroid testing, autoimmune disease testing, sex hormones, inflammation markers, and so forth
- Allergy testing
- Food sensitivity testing
- Stool analysis – looking at abnormal microbiome, inflammation, infection
- SIBO breath testing
- Hormone testing – blood, urine, saliva
- Heavy metal testing – typically urine
- Lyme disease and co-infection testing including Bartonella, Babesia, Mycoplasma
- Other infectious disease testing – EBV, CMV, HPV, HSV, etc.
- Organic acid testing (OAT)
- Environmental toxicity – glyphosate, environmental toxins
- Mold and mycotoxin testing
- And much more!
We also frequently write orders for x-rays, MRIs, bone density scans, and so forth depending on the symptoms.
Our naturopathic physicians will typically spend between 60-90 minutes with a patient on their first visit taking a thorough history, deciding on diagnostic testing, performing a relevant physical exam, and creating a customized, comprehensive treatment plan. Follow-up visits will range from 15-60 minutes depending on the patient’s needs.
We also offer IV therapy, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, and infrared sauna therapy which range from 30 minutes to 2 hours depending on the type of treatment.
Yes, our physicians frequently see patients and provide care via telemedicine. This is a great option for already established patients who prefer to stay at home and/or are too sick to make it to the clinic. Via telemedicine we can do an assessment, order labs, prescribe medications, and give you a personalized treatment plan.
The following requirements must be made to qualify for telemedicine:
- The patient must be initially seen in-person for their first appointment and must be seen in-person at least once a year. This allows our physicians the opportunity to do a thorough physical exam and provide better care. These parameters are set by the state of Arizona naturopathic licensing board and the Department of Health.
- Our physicians must decide that telemedicine would be sufficient to heal your condition and meet your health goals. Certain health conditions such as chronic pain, chronic fatigue syndrome, gastrointestinal disorders, and chronic infectious diseases like Lyme disease are best treated with our specialized in-person therapies. These therapies may include include IV therapy, ozone therapy, craniosacral therapy, visceral manipulation, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, and deep tissue laser therapy. We ask all new patients seeking primarily care via telemedicine to complete our new patient paperwork and our physicians will review your case. If we think telemedicine is sufficient to help you heal, we’ll proceed with having your first in-person visit. Otherwise we’ll do our best to find you a provider near you that would be a better fit for your health needs.
If you live out-of-state and are unable to be seen in-person, we can provide medical consulting to you and your medical team, but we can’t diagnose, prescribe patient specific treatment plans, or order labs. Medical consulting is common for us when patients seek help with chronic, complex illnesses such as hypermobile spectrum disorders, chronic fatigue syndrome, Lyme disease, mold toxicity, and so forth.
The best way to schedule an appointment is to call our office at 928-213-5828. You can also request that a representative of the office call you by submitting a request through our contact form. We require all patients to fill out our establishing care paperwork online before we schedule an appointment.
It’s ok if you need to cancel or reschedule your appointment; however, we just kindly require at least a 24 hours notice. We also require a credit card to hold your appointment time and dedicate a provider for your visit. If you do not cancel or reschedule your appointment at least 24 hours in advance, you may be charged a “no show” fee to your credit card on file. We understand that last minute plans may come up or unforeseen circumstances may happen, please contact us a soon as possible so we can work with you to reschedule or cancel without having to charge you for a “no show” fee.
Our clinic offers 15 minute “meet and greet” appointments to prospective patients for $75 without paying a full establishing care appointment fee. It gives you an opportunity to briefly present your health concerns, ask questions, and determine if it would be mutually beneficial to work together. Please know that no medical advice, labs, or treatment will be provided during a “meet and greet” appointment. Our doctors do not offer 15 minute establishing care appointments because it takes a considerable amount of time to approach your health concerns holistically and put together an individualized naturopathic treatment plan for you.
For those who decide to establish care without a “meet and greet” appointment, please know our doctors spend an extensive amount of time preparing for your first visit reviewing your intake paperwork. If during their preparation they realize a different specialist is needed, we’ll promptly let you know before your appointment and refer you to someone else who’d be a better fit.
Our doctors can only provide medical care to people that live within the state of Arizona or travel from out-of-state to see us in-person at our clinic. In addition every patient is required by state law to be seen in-person at least once a year. These parameters are set by our naturopathic licensing board in the state of Arizona and the Department of Health.
If you live out-of-state and are unable to be seen in-person, we can provide medical consulting to you and your medical team, but we can’t diagnose, prescribe patient specific treatment plans, or order labs. Medical consulting is common for us when patients seek help with chronic, complex illnesses such as hypermobile spectrum disorders, chronic fatigue syndrome, Lyme disease, mold toxicity, and so forth. Please give us a call to schedule a consult.
Yes, our physicians can schedule consults with other health care providers to assist them in managing their patient. Our physicians lend their extensive training and experience with chronic, complex illnesses such as hypermobile spectrum disorders, POTS, Lyme disease, mold illness, long covid-19, etc. Please understand the appointment is considered a “consult” as we provide advice and guidance. This may include suggested testing and treatment ideas, but we will not diagnose, prescribe patient specific treatment plans, or order any labs. The consult would be paid for by the health care provider or the patient would pay for our physicians time.
Payment is due at the time of service. We accept ALL major credit cards, HSA, cash, and check. Unfortunately due to the rise in medical supply costs, we are no longer able to offer payment plans at this time.
Our goal at Aspen is to provide you with the highest level of personalized care and we are committed to helping you achieve optimum health. Regretfully our clinic is unable to accept or bill insurance for patient visits because most major insurance companies do not credential with naturopathic physicians in the state of AZ. This includes medicaid (AHCCCS) and medicare. It is outside of our choice and control to bill insurance for our services.
The short answer is regretfully no.
Medicare/Medicaid pays only for services performed or ordered by Medicare/Medicaid-credentialed providers, and naturopathic physicians are prohibited to credential with Medicare/Medicaid according to federal law. It is thus illegal to bill Medicare/Medicaid for patient visits, in-office procedures, lab orders, and imaging orders done by a naturopathic physician. Because of this our clinic does not submit any insurance claims on our patients’ behalf to Medicare/Medicaid nor does our clinic condone our patients in doing so. There has been reported cases of naturopathic physicians being held financially liable if a patient submits their lab order to Medicare/Medicaid, it gets covered by accident, and it is later rescinded. This is not a financial risk our office is willing to take. As with all patients visits our clinic provides itemized receipts and if requested super bills. Our clinic once again doesn’t not condone or support using these documents for insurance reimbursement from Medicare/Medicaid. Any additional documentation patients request, such as written letters, CPT codes, etc if used for insurance reimbursement purposes may not be granted considering it is against Federal law to bill these our services to Medicare/Medicaid. Our clinic may also request a fee for service for our time to prepare and provide such paperwork.
With the opioid crisis, naturopathic physicians are uniquely trained to help. By seeking the root cause of the patient’s pain, our doctors can help reduce or eliminate the need for pain medication and avoid surgery. When the body is allowed to heal, pain is reduced.
We also offer treatments that can reverse pain by accelerating the body’s healing mechanisms. This includes prolozone joint injections, deep tissue laser therapy, IV therapy, ozone therapy, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, craniosacral therapy, visceral manipulation, and botanical medicine.
We make it incredibly easy to buy all your supplements and medications. Some are available at our office, but most are sold on our online dispensary called Fullscript: ACCESS HERE
We offer all patients 10% off on Fullscript and they will ship directly to you. After your first visit, you will receive an email invite to create a Fullscript account. Your doctor will also put all your recommended supplements in a Fullscript “Prescription” cart for easy buying.
If a supplement is ever on back-order or unavailable, please call our office and we’ll find you an alternative. Unless we advise you otherwise, please don’t buy supplements from Amazon because they are often “rejects” discarded by the supplement company that don’t meet quality assurance testing.
If your insurance company doesn’t cover a prescription we prescribe for you, we recommend using a goodrx cash pay coupon. Goodrx.com also lets you see which pharmacy has the lowest cash pay prices. If you need to transfer your prescription to another pharmacy, you just call your preferred pharmacy with your prescription number and ask them to transfer it for you. You can also call our office your doctor can send the prescription to your preferred pharmacy.
Our clinic offers in-house blood draw/processing/shipping for all standard orders like LabCorp and Sonora Quest. We also have a long list of specialty labs like Vibrant America, Cyrex Labs, Genova Diagnostics, and Doctor’s Data. If you have insurance, we submit your information for all standard orders to increase chance they’ll be covered. If you don’t have insurance, we offer discounted cash lab pricing through Labcorp or Vibrant America. If you decide to not get labs done with us, your doctor can give you a list of the test codes for your primary care physician to run. We can also submit standing orders for you to get your blood drawn at Labcorp, Sonora Quest, and/or Patient’s Choice if you like.