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Bill Barley, MD, is an IFM Certified Practitioner (IFMCP) who uses the Functional Medicine model in an insurance-based practice. Watch to hear his explanation for why he finds Functional Medicine in this practice model so rewarding.

Transcript

I’m a board certified family physician, and I have a practice where both my wife and I own the practice. She also is a board certified family physician. She does administrative medicine and no longer sees patients. I’m the one who sees patients in the clinic. So, in that sense I’m a solo practitioner, but my wife is in the background doing administrative medicine.

My practice model is an insurance based primary care office and I practice both Functional Medicine and traditional medicine. I think it’s very important to be able to provide Functional Medicine in a primary care setting in the insurance model. It makes Functional Medicine approachable and something that all my patients can benefit from.

The benefit for my model, to me as the practitioner, is that it’s extremely rewarding. I can wear two hats. When I’m seeing the patient, I can talk to the patient about their primary care, wellness visits, illness visits, healthcare maintenance. Then I can shift gears in my own mind when seeing the patient and talk to them about Functional Medicine.

Maybe the problem they are presenting with today would be best served using a Functional Medicine model.

That’s extremely rewarding to me. I can take care of patients in both worlds and wear both hats.