BEWARE: ALPINE WELLNESS
We were patients at Alpine Wellness for approximately a year and a half, but their conduct became increasingly concerning and we ultimately terminated our family's membership.
What started as a concierge medical practice that promised personalized care, transparency, and direct access to providers increasingly felt like a series of additional fees, memberships, and financial commitments that were not clearly disclosed upfront.
For example, patients are told lab work is included with the concierge membership, yet there is a $400 charge for the initial lab panel written into the contract. That charge was never proactively explained to us. We first learned about it when it was time to schedule the labs.
Communication was another major issue. I found it nearly impossible to communicate directly with Anya or Trevor when I had questions or concerns. Questions were repeatedly routed through the receptionist, and we often received responses about office policies rather than straightforward answers from the providers themselves.
The final straw came after my annual lab review and an appointment discussing a plan to improve my health. We discussed treatment recommendations, medications, the costs of those medications, consent forms, medication delivery, and next steps. What was never discussed during that appointment was that moving forward with those recommendations would require approximately $850 per month in additional memberships and a six-month contractual commitment, on top of the $300-per-month concierge membership we were already paying. This was particularly troubling because the recommended medications were standard oral prescriptions that would have been 100% covered by my health insurance. There was no need for the practice to supply or administer the medications, yet accessing the recommended treatment through Alpine required enrolling in additional monthly membership programs.
That information came later.
When I questioned why such a significant financial commitment had not been disclosed while the treatment plan was actually being presented, I spent weeks trying to get a straightforward answer. Despite multiple emails that included all parties, I was repeatedly routed back through the receptionist and never received a direct explanation from the provider who made the recommendations.
For me, the issue ultimately became much bigger than cost. It became an issue of transparency and trust.
Between the additional fees, inability to communicate directly with providers when significant concerns arose, and feeling like nearly every step of our care led to another membership or paid service, we no longer felt comfortable continuing with the practice. It became difficult to know whether recommendations were being made solely because they were medically appropriate or because moving forward required purchasing additional services from the practice.
At the level of care being recommended to us, our family's costs would have approached $15,000 per year.
If a treatment plan requires hundreds of dollars per month in additional memberships and a long-term contractual commitment, I believe that information should be disclosed during the medical appointment when the treatment is being discussed, not afterward when the patient believes the next step is simply completing consent forms and receiving medication.
Healthcare requires trust. Patients should be able to trust that significant costs and contractual obligations will be disclosed when healthcare decisions are being made, that providers will communicate directly when serious concerns are raised, and that medical care will not continually be placed behind another paywall.
It is incredibly disappointing because we genuinely wanted Alpine Wellness to succeed and had hoped to remain patients long term. Based on our family's experience, however, I would not recommend this practice. read more
