(519) 265-8035
info@naturalchoicemedicalclinic.com
Accessing the Patient Portal
You can access your patient portal by clicking on this link:
https://naturalchoicemedicalclinic.janeapp.com/login
If you have already set up a profile in the past with our clinic, you will just need to enter your email address or user ID (whichever you input at the time of your first login) and your password. If you are unable to remember your password, you can reset your password.
If you haven’t yet set up a profile with our clinic, you will need to create one using the email you provided at time of booking.
If you are having trouble accessing your patient portal, or navigating your account once you’ve logged in, please feel free to give our admin team a call at 519 265 8035 and we’ll be happy to help you troubleshoot!
Billing FAQ’s
Recently, Jane has been updated to provide patients access to their receipts through their Jane account page. To access your receipts, sign into your Jane account (following this link https://naturalchoicemedicalclinic.janeapp.com/login) and scroll down to “My Account”. Below, you will see “Receipts” and when you select this option, you will see your receipts, with your most recent transaction at the top. You can even select the time period for which you’d like to see (and download) your receipts by selecting the payment start and end dates. If you have difficulty accessing your account, just give our office a call (519 265 8035) or email us (info@naturalchoicemedicalclinic.com).
The cost of delivery of health care is difficult to imagine in Ontario when the majority of health care services are paid through taxation and the publicly funded health care system (OHIP).
Some of the costs associated with your appointments include:
- A physical space or HIPPA compliant virtual platform to have your visit.
- Malpractice insurance and registration for your health care provider accounts for $12-17 per hour of patient time. Naturopathic doctors that administer IVIT and vitamin injections need to carry additional insurance and must do additional continuing education above and beyond what is already required by their colleges.
- A dedicated staff who have specialised training in supporting patient care.
- Additional case work that occurs outside of your visit, which may include reviewing forms, lab work, writing letters, researching your case and preparing for your visit.
- The time with your health practitioner during your appointment.
- Any tools/equipment that the practitioner or clinic provide for using in the appointment.
This amounts to a significant per-patient cost to provide the level of care that patient’s desire. We do not double book our patients and your doctor promises to work hard on your case. We work hard to provide additional levels of support for our patients through our free webinars, social media posts and through our paid group programs.
We can direct bill most of the large extended health benefit providers (Canada Life, Manulife, Green Shield, etc…) There are a few notable exceptions that we aren’t able to direct bill (Sunlife, Blue Cross/Blue Shield). If you have a question as to whether we can direct bill your provider it is best to contact our office.
Your credit card is required to secure your appointment booking. This is to confirm your commitment to the time with the practitioner. When we commit to working with a patient, we reserve one-on-one time with their practitioner, secure the resources, staffing and space (or virtual platform) to see them. We also set aside time to manage your case, read your intake forms, develop your plan and communicate with your other health care practitioners. When patients ask to be seen by a practitioner at our clinic, they are asking for a significant amount of resources to be reserved for their care. We are passionate about being able to offer this level of care, but also require patients to commit – by securing their credit card information. A secured appointment means that both the patient and the office are equally committed, and secures payment for the appointment resources if patients do not show up, or cancel at short notice.
You will always be notified if your credit card is going to be used and receive a receipt for the transaction.
Examples of Credit Card Charges may Include:
- Payment for your appointments
- A missed or late cancelled appointment payment
- Payment for lab work, supplements/other products, vitamin injections and/or IV therapy at the office.
Credit cards are stored with the same level of security, privacy and compliance as your medical records at the office
If you have health care benefits to offset the cost of your health care appointments, that’s great! Not all of our patients have extended health benefits. It can be very supportive to have an insurance plan that helps you reach your health goals.
For many patients, their insurance coverage is a small portion of the cost of their visits, or does not extend through a full year.
Our practitioners never dictate our suggestions or your treatment plan based on your insurance, and only offer suggestions that are in your best interest. For some patients, the recommended
visit schedule is less than their insurance would allow. For some patients, their needs exceed their insurance.
Choosing to continue your care after your insurance expires is a personal decision. We find that patients who maintain their momentum, and stick to the practitioners recommended
appointment schedule, reach their health goals.
Talk to your practitioner about your needs.
Oftentimes if it’s been more than 6 months since your last visit, we require a longer reactivation appointment to get reconnected. For many patients, it’s worthwhile to continue their momentum with shorter appointments.
After your Naturopathic Doctor has recommended that you have lab work completed, the patient care team will collect payment for the recommended labs. Payment can be processed in-person at the office, via phone to a credit card, or we can send you a link to pay online through your Jane account.
Lifelabs, RMA, and ICL require Naturopathic Doctors to collect on their behalf rather than having patients pay for their lab work directly to the lab. There will be no additional fees when you arrive at Lifelabs for the lab work, or when you send in your lab test kits.
Please note all lab requisitions expire after 6 months. It is suggested you complete them as soon as you can.
We cannot offer refunds for your lab work, even if you choose to not complete the tests or have them completed by another provider.
Refunds for services that can qualify under health benefits put the office at risk for insurance fraud. Patients can submit their invoices to insurance companies after payment, regardless of whether the lab work was completed or not. The clinic cannot be at risk for refunding patients who have received insurance claims for the same services.
When you agree to completing lab work and pay your invoice, you are consenting to have the lab tests completed. If you choose to not continue with the office for any reason, your lab work will still be uploaded to your patient portal that you can keep for your records.
Please note all lab requisitions expire after 6 months. It is suggested you complete them as soon as you can.
Appointments FAQ’s
Firstly, we certainly understand that life can be unpredictable and sometimes last-minute changes happen. We understand that certain circumstances may lead you to need to late-cancel or miss a visit at our office.
Our admin team does their best to accommodate last minute changes when possible, but it is unfortunately not always possible to make last minute updates to appointment times.
Late cancellations pose an incredible challenge and stress to our clinic’s patient care team. We have a policy in place to protect you and your practitioner, ensuring you have a specific time allotted for your visit. Patients agree to the policy when they join the office, and are grateful that we do not double book their appointments or disrespect their time.
However, it’s very common that when patients miss an appointment, or have a circumstance that prevents them from attending, they get very angry at the office staff for having a cancellation policy, even when they have benefited from that policy in the past. When you miss an appointment or cancel without enough notice (2-business days) you are responsible for the fee of the appointment you missed, regardless of the reason for the missed appointment.
What we suggest for patients who feel their schedules are too inconsistent to commit to their appointment time is to wait until they are more confident that they can book an appointment without missing it or having to reschedule.
Please note: We have a zero tolerance policy for harassment, bullying or threats. These behaviours result in the immediate discharge of patients from our care.
Virtual appointments have become much more popular in the last few years, so our booking platform, JaneApp, has created a very user-friendly video call option that many of our patients take advantage of.
Thirty (30) minutes prior to your appointment time, you will receive an email from Jane which includes a video link. We recommend you try to log into your video call ahead of time, just to ensure that your device will work at the time of your appointment.
If you have an Apple/iOS device, you will need to download the JaneApp and login to get on your video call.
If you use any other device, you will not need to download any apps. However, it is recommended that you use Chrome to join the video call for the best experience.
Naturopathic Specific FAQ’s
Our naturopathic doctors can requisition a number of different lab tests including blood work done through Lifelabs as well as other testing kits done through other labs such as In-common laboratories. If you decided to have lab work done through our clinic, we would collect payment for this upfront then:
For blood work done through lifelabs: You would receive a lab requisition from your Naturopathic doctor that you would take to any Lifelabs location. The results would then be sent directly to us. You would then have a follow up appointment with your ND to review the results and update your treatment plan accordingly.
For lab testing kits: You would receive a lab requisition from your Naturopathic doctor for the test. If there is a kit associated with it, you can either pick one up from our clinic or we can have them shipped directly to you. You would then complete the test and mail it to the labs using a prepaid shipping label that is provided within the test kit. The results would then be sent directly to us. You would then have a follow up appointment with your ND to review the results and update your treatment plan accordingly.
Once payment has been processed for your lab work, your requisition will be made visible to you in your patient chart. You will receive an email letting you know that a document has been shared with you.
You will need to log into your Jane account, click on Documents, and then click on your lab requisition. Please double-check that the date on the requisition is for your most recent lab requisition.
If it is a bloodwork/lifelabs requisition, please download the document, print out both pages of the Lifelabs requisition and take it with you to the lifelabs location.
If it is a test kit requisition, please download the document, print it out and make sure to include it in the test kit box with your samples when mailing it back to the lab.
Please allow at least 48 hours for your lab requisition to be uploaded to your chart.
We can certainly appreciate that a long list of recommended lab work might seem daunting, either financially or physically, or both! However, your ND makes these lab recommendations based on their education, assessment of your unique case, and their experience.
It is possible that if you find the list of lab work overwhelming, your ND may be able to pare down the list; however, this will result in a less than comprehensive report and therefore an abridged treatment plan. For instance, if your ND recommends a full thyroid panel (which includes TSH, free T3, free T4, anti-thyroglobulin, TPO, and reverse T3) and you want to just complete TSH, this will give a very limited idea of your overall thyroid function and health. The ND will only be able to speak to one small aspect of your thyroid’s function, and not to whether your thyroid is functioning optimally.
So, whenever possible, we recommend following through with all of the lab testing that is recommended by your ND so that they can have a complete picture of your health.
Your patient instructions/treatment plan will be in your Jane account once your Naturopathic Doctor has finished updating your notes.
Once s/he is finished with your plan, they will share it with you and you will receive an email letting you know that a document has been shared with you.
You will need to log into your Jane account, click on Documents, and then you will see your most recent treatment notes.
Please note: If there are any attachments that the ND has added to your plan, e.g. recipes, handouts, etc…, you will need to download your plan to be able to see all of the additional attachments.
It’s very common to have questions come up as you are following the treatment plan provided by your ND. Although some questions may seem simple, oftentimes medical questions can be complicated.
For example, even questions such as “can I take this supplement instead of this one” or “which protein powder should I use” are often complicated to answer, and require the time and attention to answer correctly.
Every time your doctor answers you they have to open your chart, review your case and note their recommendations, the instructions they gave you and that you gave consent to the treatment. This cannot be accomplished over email or in a quick interaction.
If you find yourself having one or several questions between visits, you have a few options:
- Write down your questions and bring them up at your next regular appointment. We totally understand how excited you are to get started on a good path! Most questions can wait until an appointment (and if they can’t, we suggest an appointment!).
- If your questions are more pressing, and you feel you cannot move forward or it’s going to significantly impact your treatment plan, you can book an appointment. It’s very common as patients are starting out on their journey that they have more questions than can be fit in their allotted appointment time. Many patients need a quick call between their regular scheduled appointments.
If you have any information or documents that you would like to share with your practitioner, please email them to info@naturalchoicemedicalclinic.com and our patient care team will upload the information into your patient chart.
Please note if it’s information for a naturopathic doctor, they can only review and discuss this information with you at an appointment.
Your practitioner has recommended your next appointment type and length for a reason, usually based on what needs to be covered. We will schedule your appointment for the length of time suggested by your practitioner to ensure you get the care and undivided attention that is needed to ensure your success.
In the rare case that a practitioner has suggested a longer appointment (for example: because there will be lab work to review) and the lab results are not available for the appointment, the practitioner may choose to shorten the visit at that time.
On your prescription from your Naturopathic Doctor, they will indicate the number of refills for the pharmacy to release before you are required to follow up.
These prescriptions often require lab work and monitoring to ensure your doctor’s doing their due diligence. They are required to monitor your expected improvement or side effects from your prescription.
When you are close to running out of your prescription, you will have a follow up with your doctor to review your case, lab work (if necessary) and discuss a renewal. Prescriptions cannot be renewed outside of appointments.
A 2-6 week extension can be given under certain emergency circumstances and is up to the doctor’s discretion. Prescription renewals outside of a formal appointment are billed at a fee of $30.
Receiving a prescription from a non-OHIP funded professional is a unique experience for many patients, and can present unique challenges. Patients are often accustomed to phoning the pharmacy, an office staff member or having a prescription “just sent in” on their behalf. These services are billed under the OHIP system, but give patients the impression that they are easy, free and do not require documentation or resources to occur. Prescription renewals of any length require your doctor to review your chart, document the changes, submit the prescription to the pharmacy and provide adequate follow-up with the patient. This service cannot be free of charge.
A 2-4 week refill can be given under certain circumstances to tide you over to your next follow up appointment. This is up to the doctor’s discretion. Prescription renewals outside of a formal appointment are billed at a fee of $30.
