New island doctor offers ‘healthcare for the entire family’

PHOTO BY JOSHUA KODIS

Dr. Andrea Kaupas, owner of Coast 2 Coast Healthcare on the island, aspires to offer the kind of care many island residents grew up with.

If you are over a certain age, you’ll most likely remember the days when your family doctor treated everyone in the family and even made house calls when necessary. Then we entered a time awash in a sea of specialists when it became a challenge to figure out what doctor to see for what ailment. But now there seems to be a resurgence of old school doctors practicing modern medicine for the whole family.

“My goal is to deliver better quality healthcare for the entire family,” said Dr. Kaupas, a board-certified family physician who opened her island office on Beachland Boulevard this summer. “It seems that practicing medicine has become so specialized that there is very little time for the doctor and patient to establish a long-term relationship. I pledge to spend more quality time with each patient, addressing all the patient’s concerns with every visit. As a board-certified family practice physician with over 10 years’ experience, I’m very excited to offer primary care to all ages.

I focus on preventative, acute and chronic care.”

Coast 2 Coast Healthcare operates as a direct primary care medical provider which improves healthcare access with a simple, affordable membership fee that is based mainly on age, with younger people paying a lower fee.

Under the arrangement, there are no fee-for-service payments and no third-party billing. All office visits are covered under the membership fee. This model of medical practice allows patients to have access to their physician 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and the physician is accountable to the patient and not the insurance company.

“I found that being able to practice medicine the way I wanted to was not compatible with a corporate environment and I want to get back to one-on-one relationships with my patients,” Dr. Kaupas explained. “I also want to be able to treat the whole family and not just focus on the geriatric or pediatric population. And I try to do everything I can to make it affordable for everyone.”

Dr. Kaupas has developed a sliding scale fee structure based on age. For children newborn to 18, the fee is $50 per month; for 19-to 39-year-olds, it’s $125 per month; for ages 40-64, it’s $175 per month; and for those over 65, it’s $250 per month. She also offers discounts for families of four or more and limits her membership so she can spend as much time as necessary with each patient.

“Generally speaking, a geriatric patient will require more attention than a child, so I wanted to structure the fee to reflect the amount of time I will be devoting to that patient,” Dr. Kaupas said.

“I try to do as much in the office as possible to avoid having to go to a specialist.

“Having worked in urgent care I am proficient at laceration repair, minor dermatologic procedures like skin lesion excision/biopsy, cryotherapy, abscess drainage, cyst excisions, EKGs, casting and splinting, ear wax removal, colposcopy, joint aspiration and injections and more.

Those are done for my members at no extra costs.”

Coast 2 Coast Healthcare offers yearly skin mapping with computer technology for members as well. This advanced technology is highly effective for skin cancer detection as it takes a yearly photo covering 90 percent of the body and documents where the moles and suspicious spots are found. Then the following year a comparison can be made utilizing the computer-generated photo in addition to a visual exam, allowing the doctor to see changes in size, shape and color of the moles.

To keep medical costs as affordable as possible, Dr. Kaupas offers discounts for lab work and medication. She has negotiated cash pricing with local labs and will order medications at her cost and pass on the cost savings to her patients.

While Coast 2 Coast Healthcare doesn’t have its own lab, it does have the technology to do like urinalysis, rapid strep, RSV and acute care testing. Swab cultures and biopsies are collected at the office and sent to an outside lab for diagnostics. When the results come back, Dr. Kaupas discusses the findings with her patient.

“The bulk of my practice focuses on preventive care because the healthier you are, the less medical expense you’ll incur in the long run,” Dr. Kaupas elaborated. “Of course, I see my share of unforeseen injuries, such as a child who falls and cuts his head. I can stitch him up right here in the office without having to subject his family to the inconvenience and expense of visiting the emergency room.”

If an injury or ailment is severe enough to land you in the hospital, Dr. Kaupas can consult with and specialists and help coordinate your care. Helping her patients navigate the ins and outs of hospital care is paramount to her. “As their primary care doctor, I know my patient better than their attending specialists. Sometimes it’s confusing for the patient to understand the procedures or medications being prescribed and just trusting me to help them comprehend is comforting to them.”

Sports, school and even DOT physicals are included in the membership plan, but Coast 2 Coast will provide those services for a small flat fee to nonmembers as well.

Dr. Kaupas completed her medical education at Kansas City of Medicine and Biosciences and her internship and residency with Pontiac Osteopathic Hospital. She joined a family practice group in Traverse City, Michigan, where she was a partner in the practice for 10 years. She and her family moved to Florida to open her own practice – Coast 2 Coast Healthcare. She is now accepting new members at her office located at 660 Beachland Blvd., Suite 202, Vero Beach. Call 772-268-9800 for a free consultation to see if her plan is right for you.

Comments are closed.