Membership

Direct Primary Care is a growing health care delivery and payment model. Instead of your doctor making contracts with an insurance company, the doctor forms a direct contract with you. In other words, your doctor is working directly for you and not for the insurance company! For a monthly membership fee, you have access to a broad range of primary care services, without any copays or deductibles. You have direct access to your doctor and everything is covered in your membership fee! This model allows your doctor to have fewer patients than usual, which translates to individualized care for you.

We do not take private insurance. We do accept and bill Medicare.  Medicare patients are required by law to pay a co-pay.

Yes! It is still very important to have health insurance to cover the cost of emergency care, hospitalizations, and specialist visits.

Medicare is the one insurance carrier that we do bill and we are legally required to do so if you have it. In addition to the membership fee, Medicare patients may also be responsible for additional copays.

Because your health and your time are worth it.  Sick care is always expensive in the USA, but health care does not have to be.  One year’s membership to Maine Street Medical costs far less than the average emergency room visit.  What’s more, if you are ill and call us, you will not waste your precious time waiting to speak with your physician—the doctor holds the phone!  Too sick to leave home?  You can make a telehealth appointment with ease.  We will go the extra mile to stretch your healthcare dollars.  As always, we encourage emergency room use for exactly that: emergencies, and if you are having one, call 9-1-1!  But if you’re not sure, we’re happy to help.

As many as you need! You also have access to messaging through our patient portal. We entrust patients with our personal phone numbers for emergencies.

The short answer is, as long as they need to be. For all the technological prowess of modern medicine, 80 percent of diagnoses are still made with a good history and physical exam.  The average primary care physician’s panel is around 3000 patients these days.  Ours is far less, permitting you the time and attention needed to keep it simple.

For the labs and images, we coordinate referrals and you can use your insurance or pay cash, as you normally would. In many instances, we have negotiated discounted pricing for our patients.

Yes! But we encourage you to check with your accountant as legislation is constantly changing.

Almost never.  Exceptions include when symptoms are very acute and the fastest/best solution is for one of us to see another’s patient.  And we do occasionally need a vacation or to attend educational seminars.  If you need an acute visit during those times, you may have to see another Maine Street physician.  We promise it will be a quality person!

According to the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, "Lifestyle medicine is a medical specialty that uses therapeutic lifestyle interventions as a primary modality to treat chronic conditions including, but not limited to, cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, and obesity.  Lifestyle medicine certified clinicians are trained to apply evidence-based, whole-person, prescriptive lifestyle change to treat and, when used intensively, often reverse such conditions. Applying the six pillars of lifestyle medicine—a whole-food, plant-predominant eating pattern, physical activity, restorative sleep, stress management, avoidance of risky substances and positive social connections—also provides effective prevention for these conditions." Dr. Thyssen and Dr. Buttarazzi are both board certified in lifestyle medicine.