Frequently Asked Questions

GetzWell Pediatrics is San Francisco’s premier primary care practice providing thoughtful, progressive medical care. We work diligently to provide a patient experience that is very personal and tailored to your family.

Our highly trained staff is unhurried, listens to you and focuses on your child’s unique needs. 

We offer longer visits, 24/7 physician access, customized treatment plans, counseling for healthy lifestyles, a state of the art office and other customized services including nutrition counseling and lactation expertise for nursing mothers. 

This contrasts with most other pediatric and family practices where each doctor routinely sees over 20 patients per day. In such high volume practices, the typical office visit lasts about 12 minutes, the national average. We never rush, spending 3-4 times the national average during appointments – a busy day for us would be 6-8 patients.

Our approach combines the best of conventional and complementary medicine, addressing not only physical symptoms but also psychological, social, environmental, and developmental aspects of health and illness. Guided by the latest science, we believe in stimulating the innate human capacity for healing, all the while teaming with parents to provide safe and effective choices for your child’s care.

We love it, our patients love it, and we think you will too.

GetzWell is an affiliate of UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital. However, we also may make referrals to specialists at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland, California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC-Sutter), and Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford.

At GetzWell Pediatrics we believe your infant’s care begins long before your child is born. The environment of the womb is just as important as the family and world your child enters at birth. This is supported by an entire field of study called epigenetics. We want to help you positively impact your child’s long-term health by discussing how you can reduce exposure to environmental toxins and by providing cutting edge nutritional advice before and during pregnancy. We are experienced in helping women to achieve the highest level of nutritional health and well-being and are available to educate, guide and motivate mothers, children, and the entire family.

Insurance is complicated. Once you schedule a meet and greet, we conduct a thorough review of your insurance to help you understand your reimbursement.

No. Note that the average solo pediatrician has over 2000 patients and sees as many as 25 patients per day. In contrast, an average day for one of our providers is 5-7 patients. We have made a conscious decision to limit our practice size because our primary goal is to offer the highest quality medical care to our patients. 

We are a direct primary care (DPC) pediatric practice wherein members pay us for medical services upon completion of their appointment. We keep the practice small so our members receive superlative integrative care and see us same day under most circumstances if needed. Upon joining, each new pediatric patient is assessed a membership fee. Our current annual fee is $400 for a single child under 5 years of age. When your child turns 5 before the renewal month, the annual renewal fee is discounted.

We are often able to see you and your child(ren), even for non-urgent matters, on the day of your request and always within three business days for routine matters. In the case of illness or an urgent need for a visit, we always accommodate our members on the same day. GetzWell membership provides many benefits including newborn house calls, 24/7 direct access to a GetzWell professional, priority appointments over non-members, phone/virtual consultations with our care providers, answers to brief non-urgent email questions at no additional cost, and more. While we see non-member patients on a space available basis, a surcharge is assessed to non-members for all medical services and aforementioned member benefits are not available.

In general, PPO insurance covers the cost of lab tests and other studies. Insurance is complicated. Once you schedule a meet and greet, we conduct a thorough review of your insurance to help you understand your reimbursement. 

GetzWell Pediatrics works with many of the Bay Area’s finest hospitals. If your child needs hospitalization, we will comanage hospital care and/or maintain contact with your hospital team. Upon discharge, we provide seamless follow up.

The providers at GetzWell Pediatrics will arrange for pediatric specialty care if it is needed. We have relationships with pediatric specialists at all the major hospitals in the area: UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland, CPMC Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford.

For members only, we provide an after hours phone number which will connect you directly with one of our skilled providers. This eliminates phone trees, answering services, and impersonal nurse triage systems.

Because we know our patients well and calls are answered by one of our own professionals, we rarely send children to urgent care centers or emergency rooms, which is usually what happens when impersonal triage systems are involved and is typical in insurance based practices. We think this is smart medicine and will save you money in the long run.