You Can Afford to Go to the Doctor

Grassroots Healthcare provides medical services at an affordable cost for those without insurance.

Dr. Melita Tate and Nurse Practitioner Monica Winford ­welcome you to Grassroots Healthcare.

This flu, cold and virus season has been a real doozy – it’s nearly impossible to go a day without hearing about something “going around” at work, school and throughout the community. Unfortunately for many people, going to the doctor simply is not an option because they don’t have health insurance and can’t afford it. That’s where Dr. Melita Tate at Grassroots Healthcare comes in. “I would love a few years from now for the history books to show that patients and doctors joined together and solved the medical problems without the government or insurance companies,” she says.

    Dr. Tate’s practice, Grassroots Healthcare located at 91st and Sheridan in Tulsa, offers high-quality medical care at an affordable price by removing insurance and Medicare from the equation. Eliminating insurance procedures allows Dr. Tate to spend more time with her patients, keep the schedule open to work in sick patients, and offer significantly lower prices for visits and testing – far below the current local rates.

    This vision of Dr. Tate’s ­didn’t materialize by accident. Over the years, she has witnessed the mountains of red tape involved between doctors, patients, insurance companies and the government. Just as uncoiled tape tangles together into a big, time-consuming mess, so has this situation. “Doctors can’t get to patients anymore,” says Dr. Tate, “because they have to spend so much time on things like insurance codes, which differ from company to company and are changed all the time.” Because of all these ­complications, medical costs also go up because doctors have to hire so much extra staff to deal with billing and insurance issues.

    Grassroots Healthcare keeps it simple with affordable fees that are posted up front and are due at time of service. “We want to keep our healthcare facility free from government and insurance influence,” she says. “This helps us keep prices far lower.”

    To illustrate just how much lower, Dr. Tate recalls a situation in which she sent a patient to have lab work done at a place used by other doctors as well. Grassroots charged its usual low fee for the lab work, which took care of all costs involved for both Grassroots and the lab company. Somehow, though, the patient’s insurance company was ­accidentally billed by the lab for the procedure and a detailed statement was sent to the patient. The matter was rectified quickly, and neither he nor the insurance company had to pay any further costs. However, both Dr. Tate and the patient were amazed by how all the channels involved with an insurance payment had increased the cost of the lab work dramatically: the price went from $60 to $400.

    The services at Grassroots Healthcare include, and extend well beyond, emergency services such as sutures and abscess drainage, full physicals, and basic sick visits. CT scans are another important service that can be obtained at Grassroots, at a cost of $150, a price Dr. Tate describes as “extremely ­affordable.”

    Dr. Melita Tate is board ­certified in both pediatrics and internal medicine. She is happy to welcome Nurse Practitioner Monica Winford, a recent addition to the Grassroots team.

    “I love what I’m doing here,” says Dr. Tate. “I never look at the clock at the end of the day and think, ‘I have this much time before I get to go home.’ I have great job ­satisfaction, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”

    For a complete list of ­services and pricing, visit www.grassrootstulsa.com. 

For more information, contact

Grassroots Healthcare

www.grassrootstulsa.com

About Author Sheryl Sowell

Sheryl Sowell was born and raised in Tulsa, OK. She graduated from Will Rogers High School and received her Bachelor of Arts in English from Northeastern State University in 2007. She has worked for Value News as editor, writer and advertising copywriter since 2008. She enjoys meeting and interviewing people for Value News articles, learning about their backgrounds, and helping to promote their businesses and local events. In her free time, she enjoys reading, trying new recipes and crafts from Pinterest, attending concerts and sporting events, and spending time with family and friends. Sheryl lives in Tulsa with her fiancé Paul, their daughter Scarlett, and their two dogs, Gunner and Boo.