A Love Letter to Medicine | LAPIS Medicine

Dear Still Waiting to See My Doctor,

Remember the good ol’ days when you knew your doctor and they knew you? We want those days back too! We want to know your grandkids' names, who had a baby over the weekend, your husband's Tonka Truck restoration hobby, your professional arm wrestling victories, or your kid's upcoming prom tux drama. This is our favorite part of medicine and we've missed getting to know you, not just your diagnosis and list of medications. We want to know what drives you - where you are and where you want to go. Knowing what’s important to you matters to us.

We’re excited to introduce you to LAPIS Family Medicine, a Direct Primary Care (DPC) clinic.

What is DPC? It’s a growing movement in healthcare, but isn’t a new idea. You go directly to Starbucks for a latte, Safeway for groceries, and Megan for a haircut. In return you get caffeinated, food in the cupboards, and a fresh trim. A simple, direct transaction. Tried and true. No middle man, confusing insurance restrictions, or wondering if you're in network. We’re turning the entire healthcare process on its head!

At LAPIS, the concept looks like this: You want healthcare, you simply go straight to the source, your doctors.

Here’s what you get with a LAPIS membership: :

Unrestricted direct access to your DOCTORS
Same or next-day appointments for urgent care (you can see us while you’re still sick!)
Chronic disease management, where YOU tell us what your goals are and how you’d like to reach them
Comprehensive care including annual physicals and preventative care (let’s keep you healthy so you can keep sailing, walking, roller derby-ing, reading, knitting, deep-sea welding …. Whatever it is that fills up your best life)
In office procedures: joint injections, skin biopsies, osteopathic manipulation, headache management, trigger point injections
Unlimited monthly visits (we do have a neighborhood garden-in-progress that needs some TLC - we might put you to work if we see too much of you)
Unrushed, longer visit times (yes really - a whole hour just for you)
No waiting room time (you *might* have enough time to make a cup of coffee in our lobby)
In person, virtual, and even text communications (for reals - text us and you’ll hear back from us, not a call center)
No hidden charges, no deductibles, no copays (for every . single . visit), no fee-for-service. No surprise bills that show up three months later for freezing off that one skin tag that didn’t even bother you that much
Evidence-based medicine. We’re board certified Osteopathic Physicians. We work hard to keep up to date on recent guidelines and new advancements
No middle man! No administrators, billers, coders, or accountants to inflate costs. It’s just us and you - your health is the bottom line

The nitty gritty:

$150 a month covers all your care. Yes, your physicals and your procedures and your complex visits and your visits for those annoying seasonal allergies or UTIs
- For comparison - this is less than a cell phone bill for some. It’s less than Dr. Campanelli’s Yoga membership, and less than Dr. Ngo’s cappuccino habit
- An ER visit (because your PCP is booked out 6 months) can easily cost $2,000
- An Urgent Care visit at a local establishment is $250

We’re not insurance - you should still have some insurance to cover hospitalizations, lab fees, imaging fees, medications, or specialists
- Many of our patients choose high-deductible plans to cover these “outside” costs
- If you have HSA/FSA funds, you can often use this to cover membership (check with your plan first!)
If you’re uninsured - don’t worry. We’ve worked out deals with our local labs and imaging centers to help get you the best prices we can (we don’t order labs for fun or to inflate cost - we order them because you need them done)

We're thrilled to be creating a place where you know us and we know you. Where you can reach out and get an appointment in hours or days instead of months. We look forward to taking the time to get to know you. From there, we'll work together to fit healthcare into your life, not the other way around. Here's to you, and to our, very best lives ever!

Yours truly,

Allyson Campanelli, DO & Mua Ngo, DO, MPH