Frequently Asked Questions

MI ("my") Partner Health based in Michigan is a new way to get high quality, comprehensive personalized healthcare in a team-based healthcare model, all for a flat monthly fee and truly feeling as if you have a partner in your healthcare journey. Our clinicians and care teams have ditched the traditional healthcare system, left their fee-for-service jobs, and wanted to start providing more personal care at reasonable prices. It’s that simple. No insurance, no corporate health system, no middlemen. Just providers and patients. Practically speaking, MI Partner Health is a membership model for healthcare. Every member pays a flat monthly (or annual) fee to become a member of the practice and depending on the model gain certain benefits you won't find in traditional primary care practices.

Put simply: more convenient care in a team-based care model available when you need us. Many conditions can be managed by a video visit or phone call with an in-person exam when necessary. You get unlimited visits at no additional charge—and they'll be as long as you need and typically you’ll be able to book a same-day or next-day appointment. Below is a list of services provided by MI Partner Health. Most of these services are provided as an included perk of membership. Treating common everyday problems like colds, flu, strep throat, rashes, burns, joint injuries, and other wounds. Guiding you to keep up-to-date on all recommended preventative screening, like mammograms, pap smears, and EKGs. Managing chronic conditions like asthma, diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or thyroid disorder. Your care team, supported by a physician, will work with you to formulate a long-term personalized management plan. Performing minor procedures. If you need a minor procedure like a mole removal, joint injection, stitches, or a simple cosmetic procedure, your primary care provider can often help you in the office without the need to see a specialist. Managing your specialist care. If you have a medical issue that can't be handled by your primary care provider, you'll be referred to a specialist that can continue your treatment. Our clinician will continue to work closely with the specialist to make sure there is seamless continuity of care. Providing an annual full-body physical and checkup. Your provider will perform a comprehensive exam at your first in-person appointment.

We offer a variety of primary care medical services and care models that include preventive care, diagnostic testing, and treatment of acute and chronic illnesses. We also offer Lifestyle and Functional Medicine services as well as solutions for Employers.

Absolutely! To be sure, MI Partner Health will always be there for you if you get sick or hurt. We also work proactively to keep you healthy, happy, free of preventable diseases, and living a good lifestyle. It's hard to break out of the mindset of the insurance-based healthcare system. In "the system" everything is centered around treating illness. It's very hard for a doctor to get paid by an insurance company for detecting early warning signs of diabetes or encouraging a lifestyle change to decrease risk of heart disease. Doctors just aren't rewarded for encouraging all-around good health. By being in constant contact with MI Partner Health when you're healthy, you'll be able to stay that way. By the time you're being treated for a chronic disease, it's usually too late. But if you spend your healthy years under the watchful eye of our team, you'll be able to stay out of the hospital for years to come.

If it seems like everything is a subscription these days, that’s probably because it is! And with good reason: subscriptions are the best way for a business (of any kind) to offer high-quality service and support over a long period of time. The alternative would be itemized, "usage-based" pricing—the exact pricing scheme used by the traditional healthcare system. And that isn't working out so well for anyone. Frankly, the benefits of being a member are too varied and rich to be broken down into a "menu of services.'' Paying MI Partner Health for everything they do would be like paying Netflix for every episode of TV you watch. Sounds awful.

The membership fees: ENGAGE - Team-based Care: $120 adult / $60 child per month. Family Plan $300/month. Save if you subscribe annually. DISCOVER - Functional Medicine: $160 / adult. Save if you subscribe annually. OPTIMIZE - Lifestyle Medicine: $195 / adult. $995 for 6 month package. ELEVATE - Concierge-level experience: contact us for pricing. The fees are a small price to pay for a level of care you literally can't get anywhere else. Imagine asking your current doctor to schedule an appointment for tomorrow—not likely. Those things—and many more—come free with membership. Not to mention: the membership fee can often pay for itself. We have established relationships with local laboratories and radiology centers. That means you can get blood tests, pathology screens, X-rays, MRIs, and more for lower out-of-pocket cost. We can often guide you to low cost options for your medicines. Plus, as a member, you may be able to save money on insurance by switching to a high-deductible plan or medical sharing program, with lower out-of-pocket premiums. In short: being a member of MI Partner Health is like having a true healthcare partner. Our team will always be in your corner, working to keep you as healthy as possible. It’s an amazing feeling!

You bet! Let's go over some common scenarios where a membership can save you money. #1 You're taking multiple medications. If you're taking multiple medications and using your insurance for all of them, your co-pays are probably stacking up. We will work with you to ensure you are only taking the medications you need and find the most cost effective options for you. #2 You get injured. If you get in an accident, need stitches, or require emergency medical care of any sort, you'll probably go to an urgent care or the emergency room. Going to either of these is a surefire way to drain your pocketbook. In the best case scenario, the urgent care center is in your insurance network and you pay a high co-pay—up to $100 in some cases. But that's only if you're lucky. Insurance coverage of emergency care is spotty at best, and urgent care centers are known to mislead patients regarding the true costs of care. Even if you verify multiple times that your insurance will cover your care, you can still get hit with big bills. Emergency rooms are even worse: you'll often have to pay a co-pay of $500-$1000 or more just to get seen, PLUS the cost of any additional scans or treatments. One bad day can cost you thousands of dollars—enough to cover years of a MI Partner Health membership. As a member, you know exactly who to call when you need help. #3 You're overpaying for insurance. If you're on an insurance plan named after a precious metal, you shouldn't be. Health insurance companies have been over-reaching for years. Even the cheapest health plan your employer offers covers WAY more than it should, so don't get conned out of more money by picking a low-deductible "Platinum" plan. As a member, the majority of your healthcare will be taken care of by your MI Partner Health care team. All standard care, blood work, preventative screens, and physicals will either be included in your membership or provided at a fair price by MI Partner Health. If we aren’t equipped to deal with a medical issue, it's probably serious. And if it's serious, then you'll very likely hit your out-of-pocket maximum (OOP). (This OOP is what it sounds like: the maximum amount you can possibly spend on healthcare before your insurance plan starts footing 100% of the bill.) Here's the thing: the OOP for the cheapest and most expensive plans don't vary that much. Aetna's cheapest plan costs roughly $600 per year and has an OOP of $6650. Their most expensive plan costs $4200/year with an OOP of $4000. That means you'd be paying a guaranteed $3600 extra dollars ($4200 - $600) to avoid the small chance of paying an extra $2650 (6650 - 4000) on your healthcare. That doesn't make sense! Unless you're expecting to suffer a major health crisis every 9 months, you'll be better off on a cheaper plan. Otherwise, just join a DPC practice and take the cheapest insurance you can find! Do none of those scenarios apply to you? Here's one more: #4 You care about your health. Here's the thing: MI Partner Health is the best game in town when it comes to healthcare. Think of it this way: before us, only movie stars and the super-rich were able to afford a personal care team who works tirelessly to keep them healthy. To keep a personal doctor on staff costs around thousands of dollars per month. The rest of us had to a) wait until we were sick before talking to a doctor, then b) schedule a visit weeks in advance just to c) spend 10 minutes with a doctor we'd never met. With MI Partner Health, everyone can have a personal healthcare team available for a shockingly low amount. Having a medical expert at hand to answer questions, keep track of your preventative screenings, advise on your diet and lifestyle, and actually care about your happiness was simply not possible before. Now it is. By splitting hairs over tens of dollars per month, you're missing out on the best deal in healthcare.

Essentially our team will serve as your primary care provider. A board-certified physician supports all of our care teams and is readily available to give guidance, when necessary. Given we are a membership model we can manage less patients overall and therefore have more time for you personally. Benefits include annual health maintenance visits, short wait times for appointments, longer visit times, more time with your provider who can gain a deeper understanding of of you and your healthcare goals. We strongly feel more personal relationships and communication are essential to staying healthy and we strive to deliver a more personalized and convenient solution for you and your family.

Functional medicine aims to treat illnesses by focusing on the root causes, but also digs deeper into your body's unique chemistry and life story. Practitioners examine how and why illness occurs, tailoring their care to your specific genetic makeup and biochemical conditions. This approach utilizes various types of conventional and functional lab work, nutritional supplementation, and other lifestyle-oriented practices. If you're dealing with conditions like chronic fatigue, chronic pain, gastrointestinal issues, immune challenges or hormone imbalances, functional medicine might be suitable for you. It's especially helpful when your symptoms are unclear, and you need to figure out the underlying cause to treat them effectively.

Lifestyle medicine prevents, treats, and can even reverse chronic diseases by changing unhealthy behaviors. It focuses on six key areas: eating healthier, increasing physical activity, managing stress effectively, maintaining strong social relationships, getting enough sleep, and avoiding harmful substances like tobacco and excessive alcohol. Doctors in lifestyle medicine work with you to improve daily habits that often lead to chronic illnesses such as diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and obesity. They encourage you to actively participate in your health journey, making better lifestyle choices to prevent and manage these conditions.

This level of care delivers everything our ENGAGE - Team-based care model offers with the added benefit of supplemental services. Patients are directly managed by a board-certified physician who is supported by a robust care team. Some of the expanded services you can expect to receive: comprehensive annual evaluations, an initial Lifestyle or Functional Medicine evaluation, comprehensive lab profiles, genomic testing, personalized imaging, enhanced convenience, and more!

Traditional medicine is often considered disease-centered, as its main focus is on diagnosing disease and managing symptoms. Lifestyle and functional medicine take a different approach. They are both holistic, patient-centered methods of treating illnesses, diseases, and common health issues. Despite having different focuses, lifestyle medicine and functional medicine have the same objectives of enabling you to take charge of your own health and treating the root cause of disease rather than just the symptoms.

Choose Lifestyle Medicine if you're looking to prevent and manage chronic health issues and want to focus on overall wellness through better daily habits. Choose Functional Medicine if you have specific symptoms that don't have a clear cause and require a deep dive into your unique life story and body’s functioning to find and treat the root cause. Both fields emphasize a partnership between you and your healthcare provider, aiming to not only cure illness but also promote long-term health and well-being.

Yes, you'll still need insurance, though you may be able to reduce the amount you pay. Your membership is not an insurance plan; you'll still need insurance if you have a major health problem, to cover laboratory and radiology studies, visits with traditional specialty physicians, etc. (But when those problems arise, your MI Partner Health team will be next to you to guide you through the system and coordinate your care.) That said, you may be able to save money on your insurance! Since all routine care is covered by your membership, you may be able to switch to a high-deductible health plan or medical sharing program that costs less per month.