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Learn about tick-borne illness, how it can become chronic, the challenges with traditional treatment options, and how patients can begin healing.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Urgent Care

Gordon Medical does not do emergency care. Because our services are so specialized in Functional Medicine, our providers do not admit patients to hospitals or make hospital rounds. We recommend that you have an ongoing relationship with a general practitioner outside of this clinic who is available for emergencies, urgent care and hospital admission.

If you are a patient, and have a non-urgent issue, please contact us through the Patient Portal.

For Mental Health Emergencies in Marin County call 1 (415) 473-6666 for the Crisis Stabilization Unit.

For Mental Health Emergencies in Sonoma County call 1 (800) 746-8181.

GMA On Call Pager: If you are having a new urgent problem, related to a change in your treatment at Gordon Medical, this service will leave a short message with the on-call practitioner.

Calls are not checked between 10pm and 8am.

Calls to the pager are charged as a phone consult fee, unless you are having an acute reaction to a new medication we have prescribed.

Call (707) 575-5180, then press 9 to message the on-call practitioner.

Appointments

We see many patients who travel from a distance for treatment. For most, it is best if they come to the San Rafael area for a month or longer to begin their treatment and receive testing and treatments in our office that are not available to them locally.

Initial visits are scheduled for 2 hours. Follow-up office visits are usually scheduled for one hour or according to your needs and will be billed for the actual time spent with your provider.

If you have found a tick recently on your person, we have a few resources where you can have it tested:

  • https://igenex.com/tick-test/– click on “Tick Test Request Form”. There are 6 different tests on the form at $75 each.
  • tickreport.com – They will test a tick for what disease causing microbes the tick may be carrying, including the pathogens in Deer ticks that cause Lyme disease:
    • $60 – Basic (DNA for bacteria and parasites)
    • $100 – Standard (deer ticks)
    • $200 – Comprehensive (non deer tick species)

To remove the tick properly, follow this link. After removal, place the tick in a sealed baggie with a moist cotton ball and ship it to the test center.

We offer 1-hour acute tick bite appointments with Yvonne Sorenson. During this appointment she can learn about your bite or new, acute, lyme symptoms and recommend testing, treatment options and best timing for testing and treatment.

If, after testing and initial treatment, you find your case to be more complex, you would need a longer intake appointment to establish care with the practice as a full patient so the practitioner has a complete health history to inform your care going forward.

See a full explanation here. Briefly: For Complex Chronic Illness: When new patients make their first appointments, they usually have many questions about how long they should plan to stay with us at GMA. Understandably, they get frustrated when we cannot answer those questions with any kind of specificity. Here’s the problem: Before we actually get a chance to take a patient’s history and examine them thoroughly, it really is not possible to formulate a therapeutic treatment program.

There will be no charge for cancellations made at least 48 business hours before the time of appointment (72 business hours for appointments of one hour or more). Otherwise you will be charged the full appointment unless your appointment time is filled.

All IV appointment cancellations must be made at least 48 business hours before the time of the scheduled appointment, otherwise a $100 cancellation fee will be charged.

Appointments scheduled for Monday must be canceled by noon on the preceding Thursday, or Wednesday for new patient appointments. Call the main office to cancel or reschedule an appointment at (415) 757-6100 or use the Patient Portal.

When scheduling your first appointment you will be given information on creating an account in our Patient Portal. There you will be able to fill out intake forms and request records from other doctors you have seen, as well as upload labs or other documents to include in your patient file.

Please be sure to complete your paperwork before your visit so your doctor has everything necessary. Request records from your previous doctors offices as soon as possible, as records transfers can take up to two weeks to receive.

On the day of your initial in-person appointment at Gordon Medical, it is helpful for you to arrive 30 minutes before your appointment time so that all necessary paperwork can be completed efficiently. You may choose to bring a spouse, relative, or close friend with you to take notes during your visit. You may ask the receptionist for a recording to be made for you of the visit, so that you do not have to worry about remembering everything.

Insurance & other costs

In order to be able to offer you the best care possible, without the limitations imposed by insurance companies, we offer our services on a cash basis only. All services provided are expected to be paid for in full at the time of service. This includes Medicare patients.

We do not bill insurance directly. You will be provided with a superbill that you can submit to your insurance for reimbursement. Coverage is dependent on your specific insurance company’s policy. We have seen some patients have good experiences receiving insurance reimbursement assistance through American Medical Health Alliance and through Medical Bill Gurus.

We are not currently providers for Medicare or Medicaid. 

In order to be able to offer you the best care possible, without the limitations imposed by insurance companies, we offer our services on a cash basis only. Because we are not providers with Medicare, you will not be able to submit your bill to them for reimbursement.

We will provide you with a receipt  that can be submitted to your insurance company. Coverage is dependent on your specific insurance company’s policy. Please understand that we offer many innovative treatments and your insurance company may not pay for all of the treatments you receive in our office.

We have seen some patients have good experiences receiving insurance reimbursement assistance through American Medical Health Alliance.

If you have Medicare or Medicaid, you will not be able to submit your bills for reimbursement.

Location and Hours

Services are available by appointment only.

The office is open Monday-Thursday from 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM and Friday from 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM.

We are closed Saturday and Sunday.

Holiday Hours – We are closed on:

  • Memorial Day
  • Fourth of July
  • Labor Day
  • Thanksgiving Day
  • Black Friday
  • Christmas Eve
  • Christmas Day
  • New Year’s Day

Our clinic is located in the San Rafael Montecito Plaza.

361 3rd Street, Suite J
San Rafael, California, 94901
(415) 757-6100

We also have an office space in San Carlos where Dr. Harris and Yvonne Sorenson, PA-C meet with patients.

Gordon Medical is located in San Rafael’s Montecito Plaza. From the parking lot in front of Trader Joe’s or Petco, find the “Montecito Plaza” arch between T-Mobile and Chipotle. 

Walk under the arch towards the water. About halfway down on the right, you’ll see the door to the “Montecito Health & Wellness Center”. Take the elevator or the stairs to the second floor and walk all the way to the end of the hall where you’ll find us in Suite J.

San Carlos: 865 Laurel St, Suite 7, San Carlos, CA 94070. 

Our San Carlos office is located within our partner practice Pacific Frontier Medical. The building is brown with purple doors, between Yan’s Garden Chinese restaurant and Chase Bank. Go up the stairs to the second floor and turn left. We are in Suite 7 and Pacific Frontier Medical’s name is on the door.

This location has no elevator access. If needed, we can see you downstairs outside in the back. You can request the outdoor option when scheduling with the front desk. 

Please note that there are no lab or IV room services at this location. Also, please be considerate of our fragrance-free policy and refrain from using scented products for the safety of our staff & patients.

The GMA San Rafael office makes every effort to be a safe space for those who have a variety of sensitivities.  

We are located in a public building, which does have the risk of chemicals and/or scents in the public areas. In the entrance to the building there is an elevator creating a high EMF area.

Access to the office includes walking down a public hallway with other businesses, such as a dental office, a school, and a Pilates studio. Despite being a medical and health building, all of these businesses come with the common public potentials for chemical and/or scent exposures. 

We suggest you wear a mask if you have sensitivities. Please ask your medical assistant if you have concerns.

Products and Services

You can see a list of many of the conditions we treat HERE.

For prescriptions refill service, please contact your pharmacy. They will send a request to our office. We do not refill prescriptions on weekends. Please plan ahead to ensure that you do not run out as it can take up to 3 business days for us to process prescription requests.

Byron White Formulas (BWF) are ONLY available to current patients of GMA doctors. We are unable to prescribe for patients that we have not seen. If you are not a current patient, we cannot help you get the BWF.

If you are a GMA patient and need to adjust your dosage, please contact your doctor through the Patient Portal.

Patient Communications

Communications to our office with 1-2 simple and clear questions relating to your current medical plan – including medication or treatment plans – can be answered quickly at no charge.

More than 1 or 2 simple questions will be charged a set fee per question. 

Communications requiring additional consideration will be referred for a 15-minute phone conversation with your practitioner, billed at their usual rate. This enables us to enhance the quality of your care, and allows us to devote the necessary amount of time to your requests.

We recommend the use of the GMA Patient Portal which sends secured messages to our staff, regarding appointments, prescriptions, test results, and patient plans.

You can also upload files and documents to the portal for your doctor’s review..

We do not recommend email for communicating personal medical information. We recommend the use of the Patient Portal.

Our goal is to give quality medical care to our patients. We find email communication more time consuming, less clear than a short conversation with your practitioner, and not a secure way to communicate private health information.

Communications to our office with 1-2 simple and clear questions related to your current medical plan – including medication and treatment plans-  can be answered quickly at no charge.

Communications requiring additional consideration will be referred for a 15-minute phone conversation with your practitioner, billed at their usual rate. 

This enables us to enhance the quality of your medical care, and allows us to devote the necessary amount of time to your requests.

We recommend the use of the Patient Portal.

Communications to our office with 1-2 simple and clear questions relating to your current medical plan – including medication and treatment plans – can be answered quickly at no charge.

Communications requiring additional consideration will be referred for a 15-minute phone conversation with your practitioner, billed at their usual rate. 

This enables us to enhance the quality of your care, and allows us to devote the necessary amount of time to your requests.

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