A Rheumatologist is a physician who trained in Internal Medicine for 3 years, then an additional 2 years in musculoskeletal medicine and autoimmune disorders.

Rheumatologists specialize in various areas, such as joint pain, blood tests, arthritis, autoimmune syndrome (RA, lupus, juvenile arthritis, for example).

Rheumatologists treat autoimmune conditions of almost every organ system including joints, lungs, kidneys, heart, brain, skin, eyes and blood vessels.

No, TDR is not a form of insurance. Under Tennessee House Bill 2323, direct care is a contract between a physician and a patient, which can be offered contractually for up to 12 months, but is explicitly not a form of insurance.

If you choose to participate in TDR, carrying insurance, in some form, is recommended should you need hospital-based services, surgery or other acute care, such as an Emergency Room visit.

If you choose Dr Brett as your primary care doctor, then you do not need a separate primary doctor.

If you choose to see Dr Brett only as your Rheumatologist, then having a primary care doctor is recommended to help coordinate care.

We do not accept insurance for office visits including commercial plans, Medicare or Medicaid. We do this so that we can spend more time with our patients and focus on their health care priorities. Patients are welcome to use insurance for blood work, medications, imaging.

If you carry commercial insurance, you may have the option to submit a charge to your insurance carrier as an out-of-network expense.

If you have Medicare, you are not legally permitted to submit charges to Medicare. Patients are required to sign a contract yearly to agree not to submit charges to Medicare.

Contracts are month-to-month, unless you choose our 3, 6 or 12 months options.

If you choose the 3, 6 or 12 month contract, alternative rates are available.

We do not accept Medicare. Dr Brett is opted out of Medicare.

We gladly will accept patients of any age, but patients are not permitted to submit claims to Medicare. Patients must sign yearly contracts agreeing not to submit any claims or charges to Medicare.

You can certainly use your insurance for any laboratory tests or imaging studies done.

Please view our laboratory pricing, as we do offer significant discounts on laboratory studies compared to most clinics and hospital-based labs.

A booking fee is charged to reserve your appointment time.

Booking fees are applied to the charges incurred at your office visit.

For example, if you are a new patient and paid the booking fee of $75, the $75 fee will be deducted from your $350 new patient visit. This means you would owe $275 at the time of your visit.

No, the booking fee is not an additional charge. The booking fee is added to your charge at the time of the visit.

For example, if you schedule a return visit, as a fee for service patient, the fee is $175. The $75 booking fee would be subtracted from the $175 established patient fee and you would owe $100 at the time of the visit.

The booking fee is refundable if you cancel or change your appointment more than 48 hours in advance of your appointment time.

For example, if you made an appointment for Friday 2 weeks ago and you call Tuesday to change the appointment, the booking fee would be refunded 100%.

Another example would be if you made an appointment for Friday morning and you cancel your appointment Thursday afternoon, your booking fee would not be refunded. You are still welcome to reschedule your appointment.