FAQ

We participate with most major health insurance plans and can bill them directly. However, we always suggest you check with your insurance company to verify that our physicians are participating providers in your plan. Please see the list of major insurance carriers that we accept, or call us to verify that we accept your insurance. If you have questions about our fees or the insurance companies with which we contract, please us at (562) 492-9288.

• All PPO insurance
• EPO insurance insurances
• HMO if under Alamitos, Coast or St. Mary’s IPA
• Medicare
• Discounted Cash Patient Fee – $120

Please note all HMO patients should sign up under Dr. Irene Malek, as all billing is made under her name- even if they choose Dr. Mark Malek as their primary care provider.

During the first consultation, we will review all of your medical records as well as gathering other appropriate facts that are applicable to your health profile. In addition, we will perform a physical exam (if in person).

On the second visit, we will develop a personalized treatment plan based on your history and lab testing. We will also determine what additional specialty testing or treatments that we want to start you on for your journey to regain your vitality.

Functional Medicine is a personalized, systems-oriented model that empowers patients and practitioners to achieve the highest expression of health by working in collaboration to address the underlying causes of disease.

 Functional Medicine addresses the underlying causes of disease, using a systems-oriented approach and engaging both patient and practitioner in a therapeutic partnership. It is an evolution in the practice of medicine that better addresses the healthcare needs of the 21st century. By shifting the traditional disease-centered focus of medical practice to a more patient-centered approach, Functional Medicine addresses the whole person, not just an isolated set of symptoms. Functional Medicine practitioners spend time with their patients, listening to their histories and looking at the interactions among genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors that can influence long-term health and complex, chronic disease. In this way, Functional Medicine supports the unique expression of health and vitality for each individual.

On the second visit, we will develop a personalized treatment plan based on your history and lab testing. We will also determine what additional specialty testing or treatments that we want to start you on for your journey to regain your vitality.

Functional Medicine involves understanding the origins, prevention, and treatment of complex, chronic disease. Hallmarks of a Functional Medicine approach include:

• Patient-centered care. The focus of functional medicine is on patient-centered care, promoting health as a positive vitality, beyond just the absence of disease.
• An integrative, science-based healthcare approach. Functional Medicine practitioners look “upstream” to consider the complex web of interactions in the patient’s history, physiology, and lifestyle that can lead to illness. The unique genetic makeup of each patient is considered, along with both internal (mind, body and spirit) and external (physical and social environment) factors that affect total functioning.
• Integrating best medical practices. Functional Medicine integrates traditional Western medical practices with what are sometimes considered “alternative” or “integrative” medicine, creating a focus on prevention through nutrition, diet, and exercise; use of the latest laboratory testing and other diagnostic techniques; and prescribed combinations of drugs and/or botanical medicines, supplements, therapeutic diets, detoxification programs, or stress-management techniques.

Functional Nutrition emphasizes the importance of high-quality foods and phytonutrient diversity to address clinical imbalances and move individuals toward the highest expression of health. Advanced nutrition assessment and a thorough Functional Medicine based history leads to a personalized therapeutic intervention created to promote optimal health and prevent diet- and lifestyle-related disease.

 

Lifestyle medicine is the evidence-based practice of helping individuals and families adopt and sustain healthy behaviors that affect health and quality of life. Examples of target patient behaviors include, but are not limited to, eliminating tobacco use, improving diet, increasing physical activity, and moderating alcohol consumption.

 Lifestyle practices and health habits are among the nation’s most important health determinants. Changing unhealthy behaviors is foundational to medical care, disease prevention, and health promotion. The physician’s trusted relationship with the patient, with the support of the family, an interdisciplinary team and the community, is key to improving health behaviors and outcomes.

Coaching is, to quote W. Timothy Gallwey, “the art of creating an environment, through conversation and a way of being, that facilitates the process by which a person can move toward desired goals in a fulfilling manner” (2000, p. 177). When those goals have to do with health, fitness and wellness, coaching becomes a vehicle for assisting people to achieve their vision and reach their goals. In order to create such an environment, coaches use evocative more than didactic approaches with clients. We do more listening than talking, more asking then telling, and more reflecting than commenting. Coaching is not mainly advising clients on how to solve problems, nor educating clients about what they should do, nor analyzing the root-causes of client predicaments. Although advising, educating, or analyzing problems are on occasion a part of coaching, they are neither the primary purpose nor approach of coaching. Coaches are collaborative and co-creative partners in clients’ journeys to reach their visions and goals.