New Clients

Welcome!  Are you ready to heal yourself?

Making your appointment: Here is a calendar of available appointment times.

You can block a tentative appointment, and Dr. Sheline will then contact you by E-mail to confirm your request.

Forms: Prior to your first visit, you will need to print out and complete the following documents.  This is very important.  The cancellation policy needs to be Emailed back one week prior to your visit.

1. New patient health questionnaire

2. Cancellation policy

How long?: The first visit with Dr. Sheline will last 45 minutes for an "introductory" visit, or 90 minutes for "New patient, complete".

Dr. Sheline does not accept any insurance plans; patients pay for services at the time of the visit.  However, on request, we will fill out and send in your insurance claim forms for you, as a service. Then you'll be reimbursed directly by your insurance company. Rates of reimbursement will vary; for Medicare you can expect to be reimbursed about 80% of the charges.

If you’d like to find out prior to making an appointment how much of your visit charge will be reimbursed by insurance, contact your agent, tell them you are going to see an “out-of network M.D.” (specify “MD”, as opposed to a different Doctor, such as a chiropractor, etc.), and that you will receive a coded superbill filled out by the M.D.  Your insurance agent should be able to tell you what reimbursement you will receive.

The reason for this policy is that Dr. Sheline prefers to deal with you directly, instead of having the insurance company as a “middle man”. This minimizes overhead and keeps down paperwork and costs.

Fees are assessed by the length of the visit and are linked to Medicare reimbursement rates.

A first-time visit is either 45 or 90 minutes one-on-one with Dr. Sheline.  Follow-up visits are usually 60 minutes.  Dr. Sheline will be able to give you an approximate dollar figure for your visit after you communicate by Email.

You will be asked to pay up front, by check, cash, or credit (small surcharge for credit).  However, Dr. Sheline will fill out and send in your insurance forms for you, as a courtesy. If you’d like to find out prior to making an appointment how much of your visit charge will be reimbursed by insurance, contact your agent, tell them you are going to see an “out-of network M.D.” (specify “MD”, as opposed to a different Doctor, such as a chiropractor, etc).  Your insurance agent should be able to tell you what reimbursement you will receive.

Charges for labs drawn (outside of the office) will be billed separately, by the lab.

I am very happy to see any patients whom I saw previously at Integrative Physicians (or at Duke, or Crissman Family Practice).

I’m happy that you are interested in using good nutrition plus other “lifestyle medicine” interventions to improve your health.

You may have noticed that I request new patients to fill out a 14-page questionnaire.  Please don't let that scare you away.  If you prefer, for your first visit to my new practice, we can get started without that questionnaire.

It will be very helpful for you to obtain copies of your records from Integrative Physicians.  Even though they are no longer in business, you can request records by E-mailing IntegrativePhysiciansPC@gmail.com.  I will especially want to see a copy of your most recent Complete Physical Exam appointment with ME.  This will likely include a good summary of your medical history.  

To block a tentative visit time with me, click this calendar, and request your appointment.  Then I will get back with you, and together we can confirm your appointment time.

We do not draw any blood in the office, but Dr. Sheline has accounts with LabCorp and Genova Diagnostics.  If he determines that you need testing of your blood, urine, or stool, he will give you an order to get these specimens collected at one of the stand-alone lab locations, or at the office of your primary care provider.

You will probably need to have a different primary care provider whose office is open from 8-5 every day, and can handle your acute issues.

Dr. Sheline specializes in “lifestyle medicine,” which means using good nutrition, exercise, sleep habits, social connection, and stress reduction to cure the underlying causes of disease.  He has 30 years of experience as a family doctor, and will know about all your common problems and medications.

Dr. Sheline can perform annual physical exam evaluations, if needed.  He does not do full-service primary care.  

Dr. Sheline will want to communicate with your primary provider about his treatment recommendations.  The goal is to be able to wean you off of most or all of your medications.

Yes.  Dr. Sheline strongly believes that your primary provider needs to be kept informed.  Ideally, your primary will be in full agreement with the treatment plan outlined by Dr. Sheline.  But in any case, Dr. Sheline will be in communication with your primary provider — unless, of course, you want to keep her (him) out of it.

You will be asked to sign “Release of Information” forms, both to allow Dr. Sheline to obtain records from your other doctor(s), and to allow Dr. Sheline to send his findings to your primary doctor.

Yes, Dr. Sheline will contact you by E-mail after your appointment, to give you a copy of his assessment and plan for your treatment, plus any lab results.  He will provide you with his recommendations for follow-up visits — both with him, and with other providers he feels would be helpful for treating your issue(s).

For any lengthy follow-up questions, Dr. Sheline would prefer that you make an additional appointment, to be able to provide you with the best possible care.