Office Policies

All appointments and schedule changes are most appropriately handled by calling 615-307-7246.

Please do not text or call Dr. Howard to make or change appointments. 

-We do not accept insurance at our office. All costs incurred as a result of services rendered by or through Compass Cellular Healing are the responsibility of the client. We will pursue measure to collect outstanding balances. If you are having trouble paying your balance, please request a meeting to discuss your financial hardship so that we can evaluate all payment arrangements for you. 

-If you require or request documentation to submit to your HSA/FSA or insurance company please note the following: 

    –A minimum charge of $300.00 will be assessed for us to provide documentation for an insurance company or other third party. This fee will cover the initial 30 minutes of work on this project. This charge must be paid prior to beginning the work. If greater than 30 minutes is required to complete the request, the time will be billed in 15 minute increments based on an hourly rate of $600.00. A final amount will be charged to card on file after completion.

    –The above arrangement excludes faxing or sending records to establish or advance care with another entity or provider. There will be no charge for this.

Consultations, Consultation Cancellations and Additional Fees

Every client receives one (1) complimentary (free) consultation with the provider. This is typically conducted in person but can be conducted remotely via phone or video conferencing. This visit usually lasts for 45 minutes and an additional 15 minutes is allowed to arrange follow up, discuss next steps and for provider documentation. 

To schedule this consultation, one must call 615-307-7246. Our receptionist will handle scheduling the appointment and help you get set up with our electronic records system so that we may begin communicating. 

We view the initial consultation as a fact finding mission. What are your symptoms or diagnoses? What documentation supports this? What therapies or treatments have you tried in the past. Can we help you? How would we help you? Can I work with you and is Compass the right place for you to receive care? It is our goal to answer these questions during this time. 

Therefore, it is extremely important that we use the consultation time wisely. To accomplish this, we request that the prospective client complete our electronic health questionnaire PRIOR to the appointment and provide the supporting documentation, sent to us electronically, prior to the visit. 

Remember it is YOUR responsibility to upload and/or transmit electronically to us any patient labs and/or images to the patient portal prior to your appointment to avoid additional charges.

If you require a family member or friend to be present and help you make decisions, please have them accompany you to your consultation.

A $75.00 credit/debit card is required to hold the consultation appointment. 

-If you fail to show for your consultation, the card on file will be charged a $75.00 cancellation fee and you will NOT be rescheduled. 

-If you cancel and reschedule the consultation, for any reason, within 24 hours of the scheduled appointment, the card on file will be charged $75.00. However, we will allow you to book another appointment for a free consultation at a later date. Again, a $75.00 credit/debit card deposit is required to hold the future consultation appointment. 

-If the consultation needs to be rescheduled, for any reason, and we are notified more than 24 hours prior to the scheduled appointment, we will not charge the card on file and we will reschedule your consultation for a future date, again, with a $75.00 deposit to hold that appointment.

Occasionally, after the initial 45 minute consultation, we need more time to determine how best to proceed. Examples of this could be, but are not limited to: provider needs to review more/additional records or documents that will guide therapy, a family member or loved one may need more information and we are needed to discuss with them, or, we must obtain records from another provider or entity. These activities are not considered part of the initial, free consultation and will be billed separately as indicated below. 

Any appointment, virtual, electronic, including email exchanges, or in person, outside of the initial, free consultation, must be covered under a practice membership plan (see below for additional details*) or will be billed in 15 minute increments based on an hourly rate of $600.00. 

    -For example, if after the initial consultation, a phone call is needed to discuss or review additional records and to make treatment recommendations.  A 15 minute phone call with the provider will cost $150.00, a 19 minute phone call will cost $300.00 and a 49 minute call will cost $600.00. Unless this service is covered or discounted under the clients separate membership plan. 

At the conclusion of the consultation the client will have a general idea as to the future treatment options and they will be provided information for our membership plans. Next, we typically have the client return for a lab draw where all labs are drawn. We then schedule an onboarding visit where the labs are reviewed, and a treatment plan and schedule are laid out. Memberships are started at this time.   

Appointments, Appointment Cancellations and Additional Fees

Any appointment, follow ups or acute visits, conducted virtually, electronically or in person with the physician, outside of the initial, free consultation, must be covered under a practice membership plan (see below for additional details*) or will be billed in 15 minute increments based on an hourly rate of $600.00-i.e.- a 15 minute phone call or “visit” will cost $150.00 and a 19 minute phone call will cost $300.00, unless specified or covered under the clients separate membership plan.

If a client is a no show or fails to notify us of the cancellation of their treatment appointment within less than 24 hours of their scheduled appointment, they will be charged 50% of the treatment fee that they were scheduled to receive.

When an appointment is made with the physician under the cash pay arrangement (i.e.-appointment is not fully covered under a membership plan) a $75.00 credit/debit card saved on file is required to hold the appointment.

If you fail to show for your appointment the card on file will be charged a $150.00 cancellation fee and you will NOT be rescheduled. 

-If you notify us to cancel and reschedule the appointment for any reason within 24 hours of the scheduled appointment, the card on file will be charged $75.00. However, we will allow you to book another appointment at a later date. Again, a $75.00 credit/debit card saved on file, is required to hold the future consultation appointment. 

-If the appointment is to be rescheduled, for any reason, and we are notified more than 24 hours prior to the scheduled appointment, we will not charge the card on file and we will reschedule your appointment for a future date, again, with a credit/debit card saved on file.

*We offer membership packages for Direct Primary Care, Functional Medicine, Performance and Regenerative Medicine. Each membership plan and tier offers certain benefits, including discounts for office visits. In our Functional Medicine, Performance and Regenerative Medicine packages, tier two is entitled to a 50% off discount for uncovered office visits. The monthly fee for a tier two package is $250.00 per month. Tier three packages have no additional costs associated with office visits. The monthly fee for a tier three package is $450.00 per month.

All tier one packages do not offer discounts on office visits.

Late Arrivals

Every person with an appointment receives a text alert 24 hours prior to the appointment. This is your reminder to not be late. If you need to cancel or reschedule your appointment, for any reason, this is your reminder to do so in order for you not to incur a charge. 

    -If you are more than 10 minutes late to your appointment, by our clock, we reserve the right to reschedule your treatment or appointment. This is to ensure that we are able to maintain our schedule and not affect the lives of the patients scheduled after you. It will be up to the discretion of the provider whether to continue with the appointment as scheduled or to reschedule. This decision will be based on the remaining schedule and availability of staff. 

    -If the client is more than 10 minutes late and the appointment is rescheduled for a future date or cancelled, a fee equaling 50% of the proposed treatment for that day will be assessed to the card on file and is non-refundable. 

Special Circumstances

We are a medical office. We care for sick people. Some situations are complicated. Occasionally, situations do arise that we cannot anticipate. In those instances, our schedule may change, and we may need to reschedule your appointment or the provider may be late to your appointment. We regret these times as they inconvenience all of us. However, I ask you to please remember, if this happens it is because another client needed us to help them at that moment. At that moment we needed to be available for them and we needed to make that person a priority. If this was you or your family, you would want the same and we would do the same for you.  We promise to make every effort to minimize disruptions or delays. We appreciate your patience and understanding. If appointments or treatments are postponed, rescheduled or cancelled due to unusual circumstances in our office that are beyond our control we will not charge clients late fees or cancellation fees.

-We reserve the right to NOT SCHEDULE future appointments for patients who are or who have been:  rude, disrespectful, have an outstanding balance, are non-compliant, repeatedly late, repeatedly cancel or repeatedly rescheduled. This is your warning. 

We reserve the right to deny patient requests if those requests are not consistent with current medical standards or violate our internal practice standards. We are not obligated to place ourselves at an increased liability for your convenience.  

We reserve the right to unilaterally terminate a client’s membership without specific cause. The relationship that we have with our clients must be mutually beneficial. Our clients are responsible for their own healthcare-keeping their appointments, being compliant with medications and treatment plans, including follow up lab draws, and calling ahead for refills when needed.  If you wish to abdicate your healthcare, this is not the right practice for you.

We reserve the right to not call in medications, especially hormones and hormone refills, if labs are not current or the patient has not been seen recently enough to ensure the safety of continuing such medications. 

If a membership is cancelled and the patient is receiving hormone care from our practice, all remaining hormone and associated medication refills will be cancelled. 

Labs and Testing

For our purposes, biological function labs (incl. but not limited to: hormone levels, heavy metals, electrolytes, enzyme numbers and vitamin levels) greater than 30 days old are considered historical and not recent. These labs will not be used to make treatment decisions. They will need to be repeated, through our office, in order for us to make treatment recommendations. 

    –It is our policy that ALL labs are done through our office. We do not bill insurance for your labs. We will not provide scripts for labs to be sent to LabCorp, Quest or any other lab. 

    -This is simply due to the high error rate we have encountered with outside labs, the confusion that arises when results take longer than expected and/or when the desired tests, although ordered correctly, were not drawn.  

    -Lyme, mold and virus testing are not biological functions and therefore we can evaluate these from a historical perspective.  

    -Imaging studies older than 365 days will not be considered reliable to determine treatment plan and will need to be repeated. 

    -If you request us to review labs from outside sources, or you would like to discuss a paper or new therapy that I must research, unless it is part of the initial 45 minute, free consultation, we will bill you in 15 minute increments based on an hourly rate of $600.00. A debit or credit card must be on file prior to review and $150.00 will be charged prior to work beginning and the remaining balance will be billed at the completion of the review. Please understand that review of labs not only includes providers time reviewing the results but also the time in communicating the interpretation to the client and making appropriate treatment recommendations. This time will also be billed at the same rate and will be included in the final bill.

Refund Policy

Direct Primary Care (DPC) – Membership fees paid prior to the date of termination will not be refunded. There are no prorated monthly fees or returns for direct primary care. If a patient were charged on May 1st for their direct primary care membership and they wanted to cancel on May 2nd there would be no refund for the charge that was put through on May 1st. This is because we must allow 30 days for transition of care and our office would still be responsible for any acute medical issues you would have in the subsequent 30 days after cancellation allowing you to establish care with a new physician or practice. In the scenario above, the patient’s card would not be charged on June 1st as they cancelled on May 2nd.

Regenerative and Performance Medicine – Membership plans are on a 12 month contract. The patient may cancel the contract at any time, without cause. However, they would be responsible for 50% of the remaining balance of the annual membership amount. This was delineated in the patient’s initial membership contract.

Functional Medicine – Membership plans are on a 12 month contract. The patient may cancel the contract at any time, without cause. However, they would be responsible for 50% of the remaining balance of the annual membership amount. This was delineated in the patient’s initial membership contract.

Stem Cells, Ozone, Exosomes and IV Infusions: There are no refunds for treatments that have already been received. Patients who bought packages of therapies or infusions have 90 days to use those packages. If they do not use the treatments within 90 days the reminder of the package balance is forfeited and the consumer is not entitled to a refund for the unused treatments.

Supplements – To ensure safety for all of our clients, supplements purchased from us, in our office or online, cannot be returned for a refund or exchange.