CooperativeMed: A Medical Practice for the Entire Family

The logistics associated with family life are plentiful. Taking children to different schools, different extracurricular activities, and different healthcare appointments amounts to hours of both planning and driving. While he can’t take your place in the carpool or drop your child off at soccer, CooperativeMed’s Dr. Michael O’Neal can help alleviate some of your family’s scheduling and commuting chaos. His practice, CooperativeMed, has provided concierge medical services to the Tampa Bay area for almost 16 years. It is Dr. O’Neal’s training in family medicine that enables him to bring all of the benefits of the family medicine specialty to the concierge medical practice setting. Concierge medical services are not just for an elite group of wealthy adults.

The family medicine specialist differs from other specialists, such as internal medicine physicians, because s/he is trained to take care of all age groups. That’s a benefit to busy families because it means that Dr. O’Neal can care for children and parents during the same visit. Having pediatric training is of the utmost importance, as children have unique needs and, consequently, treatment plans can differ from adult ones. They aren’t adults in small bodies, and those entrusted with their healthcare need the depth of medical knowledge and clinical skills unique to pediatric patients. Having the ability to thoughtfully communicate with all age groups is a must. Beyond having the requisite medical training and essential dispositions, the fact that Dr. O’Neal is also Dr. Dad further strengthens his ability to effectively interact with children.

For nearly two decades, Dr. O’Neal has worked diligently to build a practice that accommodates the myriad needs today’s families present. He’s proud that, as a Board Certified Diplomate of the American Board of Family Physicians, he’s trained in nonsurgical orthopedics, obstetrics and gynecology, and all other aspects of primary care. The breadth of his medical training is helpful for families because it creates the potential for fewer visits to specialists. When two family members simultaneously have medical needs, Dr. O’Neal can address all of them during the same visit. While Dr. O’Neal has great respect for fellow internal medicine physicians, he wants families to understand that their training is more closely geared toward hospital-based care. And while there is most certainly a need for that care, Dr. O’Neal’s goal is to provide personalized, ongoing medical care to the entire family so that visits to specialists and hospitals are diminished. Should those visits be necessary, one of the many benefits of a CooperativeMed membership is that Dr. O’Neal can accompany patients to those visits.

A membership with CooperativeMed is not necessarily financially out of reach. People are attracted to the concierge practice because of the array of personalized services and overall convenience. While those are the things people pay for at a place like CooperativeMed, the practice does accept select, non-gated insurance plans and Medicare for potentially reimbursable services. Dr. O’Neal explained, “The family medicine physician may offer patients more bang for their healthcare dollar since they have the greatest diversity of training and may be less likely to refer patients out to other subspecialists.” Beyond the potential to streamline a family’s healthcare, a membership with CooperativeMed might make financial sense. As we prepare for a new year, consider preparing your family for increased simplicity with a more cohesive approach to healthcare through CooperativeMed’s Dr. Michael O’Neal.

Categorized in: Work

This post was written by Elevate, Inc.