What is functional medicine?
Functional medicine is a root-cause approach to care that focuses on understanding why symptoms are happening — not just masking them. It looks at the body as one interconnected system, using clinical diagnostics and personalized strategies to support function, improve resilience, and optimize long-term health.
How is Functional Medicine Different from Conventional Medicine? Will You Be My Primary Care Physician?
Conventional medicine often focuses on diagnosing and managing symptoms, typically through medication or procedures. Functional medicine takes a systems-based approach — looking deeper to identify root causes, including lifestyle, environment, and underlying biological imbalances. It emphasizes individualized care, long-term strategy, and clinical insight beyond symptom control.
For example, instead of simply prescribing medication for high blood pressure, a functional medicine approach may explore genetics, epigenetics, metabolomics, stress response, sleep patterns, gut health, and nutrition — recognizing how these systems interact and contribute to the condition.
When it comes to primary care, most patients keep their own PCP alongside functional medicine. But we also offer a concierge-style Direct Primary Care program, which is a next level of service: primary care delivered by a physician who is also an expert in functional medicine. You can choose functional medicine only, concierge primary care only, or a combination of both.
What Conditions Do You Treat?
We work with a wide range of complex, chronic, and unresolved conditions. This includes hormone imbalances, gut dysfunction, autoimmune activity, fatigue, brain fog, metabolic issues, mold and toxin-related illness, and fertility challenges. Many of our patients come to us after not finding answers elsewhere.
What’s Included in My First Appointment?
Your first visit is a 60-minute consult with a board-certified MD (telehealth or in-person). We take a deep dive into your history, symptoms, medications/supplements, lifestyle, and goals; review prior labs; and, when in person, perform a focused exam. You’ll leave with initial clinical impressions, a prioritized problem list, and a testing plan (routine labs through LabCorp, Quest, or HealthLab; specialty options with clear pricing and coverage review).
If you choose to move forward, we can begin the same day with specialty testing, a personalized supplement plan, and a protocol-based approach. Health coaching, nutrition counseling, and your broader care plan may also be deployed at this stage. From there, you decide whether to continue in our membership-based care (functional medicine, concierge primary care, or a combined program), where ongoing protocols, prescriptions/hormones if indicated, and close follow-up are provided.
Do You Accept Insurance?
We do not bill insurance for our services. Membership fees are direct-pay, though many patients are able to use HSA or FSA funds for these expenses (check with your plan for eligibility).
For labs:
Routine labs (CBC, CMP, thyroid, cholesterol, etc.) are typically billed through your insurance at national laboratories such as LabCorp, Quest, or HealthLab.
Specialty functional medicine labs vary: some offer insurance billing options directly, while many are out-of-network and patient-pay only.
Before ordering any test, we will review coverage and pricing so you know exactly what to expect. Whenever possible, we prioritize insurance-eligible pathways, while also making clear which specialty tests may require out-of-pocket investment.
How Long Does It Take to See Results with Functional Medicine?
Every case is different, depending on the complexity and how long symptoms have been present. Some patients begin noticing improvements within the first few weeks, while others may take several months. Our goal is lasting results — not quick fixes — and that takes time, consistency, and the right strategy.
How Is Your Clinic Different from Other Functional Medicine Practices?
The Functional MDs is not a wellness spa or “functional medicine lite” clinic. We don’t rely on trendy therapies, generic protocols, or expensive gimmicks that drive up cost without improving outcomes.
Our care is structured, rigorous, and built for people who need real answers. Patients start with a comprehensive diagnostic discovery process. From there, treatment is delivered through a phase-based model that includes medical oversight, health coaching, and nutrition — all integrated under one plan.
We intentionally keep our caseload small to provide individualized support, detailed follow-through, and the clinical depth needed to manage complex cases.
What Makes Your Approach Effective for Complex Cases?
Complex cases demand more than protocols — they require clinical expertise. Our care is led by board-certified physicians with advanced training and years of hands-on experience managing multi-system conditions.
What sets us apart is our ability to think critically, synthesize patterns, and make precise decisions that generic approaches simply can’t match. This is doctor-led medicine, grounded in depth, strategy, and results.
Do I Need to Live Locally to Become a Patient? Do you offer telehealth visits?
No, you do not need to live locally. We offer secure telehealth visits for patients in states where we are licensed, as well as in-person visits at our Indiana practice. In our experience, telehealth patients achieve outcomes equal to those we see in person. Functional medicine is uniquely well-suited to video visits: we take a detailed history, order advanced diagnostics, and design personalized protocols that can be implemented remotely.Routine labs can be drawn locally at LabCorp, Quest, or HealthLab. Specialty labs are shipped directly to your home, with clear instructions, and prescriptions (when appropriate) are sent to your local pharmacy. This makes care seamless, whether you live nearby or several states away.
Currently licensed states: Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Washington.
Licenses in progress: Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, California.
If you live in one of our licensed states, you can receive complete care through telehealth. We update this list regularly as we expand.