We talk a lot about what’s missing in healthcare... And it’s not because there aren’t truly great medical professionals out there because we know there are. We have them on our team and they all previously worked at great hospital systems. It likely has much more to do with the way insurance because healthcare may be the only industry where the person providing the service doesn’t fully control what they’ll be paid for it, and the person receiving the service often doesn’t know what it costs until after they’ve received it. One of our core values is transparency so you’ll never find that at TAC. Why clear, predictable pricing became so unusual in healthcare in the first place is a post for a different day...
One of the biggest things missing in healthcare is clarity. No one should be afraid to address or make decisions about their health, but health anxiety can look like avoiding the doctor because you’re afraid something is wrong, assuming every symptom means something catastrophic, seeing an abnormal lab value appear in a portal with no explanation, or Googling a slightly elevated result at midnight and mentally jumping ten steps ahead. It can also look like requesting every test available because more information feels like it should create more certainty.
Labs are a great example of how data can help and worsen health anxiety. I can’t tell you how many TikToks I’ve seen featuring providers frustrated with patients who ask for specific tests and to be fair to the provider, there are absolutely valid reasons not to order every blood marker or genetic test someone heard about from a functional medicine influencer. More testing isn’t inherently better care and can create its own anxiety, but part of building trust is explaining why. Instead of, “You don’t need that test,” the conversation can be: “Based on what you’re experiencing, I don’t think that marker will give us useful information. Instead, I’d like to look at this, and here’s what it can help us understand.” Our belief is that patients may not need every test they ask for, but they deserve to understand why a test isn’t appropriate and what the plan is instead. Have you experienced anything like this in healthcare and did it give you health anxiety?
One of my own biggest health anxieties came from being told, “everything looks fine,” and leaving the appointment no more reassured because no one explained what fine actually meant, and to top it all off, I didn’t feel fine. This specific appointment is actually why our team started TAC. The answer to health anxiety isn’t necessarily more testing, more appointments or more data, but moreso the context around what those things and how they fit into your overall health. With blood markers and data, context means understanding not only whether a result falls outside a reference range, but how much it matters. Do we treat it, monitor it, retest it, refer it out, or is it something we genuinely don’t need to worry about and why? If we’re watching something, what are we watching for? How long are we comfortable watching it? And what would cause us to change course?
Good healthcare and good providers can’t and shouldn’t promise that context means nothing will ever go wrong. We should looking for though, and what TAC can promise is that we won’t unnecessarily add to the anxiety by leaving you without context, a plan, or a way to ask questions.
Here’s a breakdown of how we as a team can combat health anxiety:
I used to hate seeing blood work results land in my inbox without any explanation of what they mean or how they fit into the bigger picture of my health and wellness goals. At TAC, our providers review your labs in context. That means looking at what’s outside the reference range, but also looking at patterns, trends, symptoms, history, and the relationship between different markers rather than leaving you to interpret individual values yourself. If we’re doing something to address a specific value, you’ll know what that tactic is.
We build plans by reverse engineering your goals. When something is abnormal, you’ll understand whether we’re treating it, monitoring it, retesting it, referring it out, or simply not particularly concerned about it right now. And if our level of concern is low, we’ll explain why and what would need to change for us to become concerned.
“Let’s keep an eye on it” should never be the entire plan. This was my pet peeve before we started TAC. If I never hear this again, it will be too soon. If our team is watching something, we’ll tell you what we’re watching for, when we’re looking at it again, and what would cause us to change course. You’ll know the timeline and what we plan to do when we get there.
You shouldn’t have to choose between Googling something at 11:47 p.m. and waiting three months for another appointment. At TAC, you can email, call, or text us with questions. If your question needs more time or a more nuanced conversation, we’ll book an appointment and the best part is that your appointments are included. If you’re not getting this with your current provider, this may be what you want to look for when you make a switch.
So if you’re reading this thinking, Wait...maybe I have health anxiety and I didn’t even realize it, the next question might be: How should healthcare feel different? For us, a big part of the answer is continuity.
Traditional healthcare is often built around snapshots:
Those appointments are often a snapshot: How are you today? Has anything been bothering you this year? What needs attention? What screening is due? Is anything dangerous? It’s almost impossible to remember little things from the course of the year that aren’t big enough to schedule a sick appointment for, but that aren’t nothing. Our care model is meant to be the “through line.” We are starting with: where are we trying to go? What did we learn last time? Did the intervention work? What’s changing over time and how is it changing? What do we do next? And once it’s resolved, how are we planning moving forward? Since we initiate conversations regularly, we’re tracking granular progress and adjusting based on how fast or slow it’s going. And this is where we should probably clarify: we love a PCP. Everyone should have one. There is absolutely a time and a place for traditional primary care, and there are things your PCP should be doing that we aren’t trying to replace. We like to think of ourselves, not an alternative to your PCP, but more like the connective tissue between those visits.
If your goal is to improve your metabolic health, navigate perimenopause, lose weight, understand why you’re exhausted, or simply feel better than you do today, we don’t think it’s realistic to have that conversation once and pick it back up at your physical next year. We want to establish where you are and where you want to be, make a plan to go there, measure whether it’s working, and keep adjusting as your body and your goals change. That’s how we view the role of our team.
We don’t need to be the only provider you see. We want to be the provider and team making sure the things that matter to you don’t get lost in between, and for someone with health anxiety, that continuity helps lessen anxiety and really matters because we know the history, understand the plan, know what we’re watching, and can help put new information into context.
Our goal is to make sure you’re not left alone with your health information trying to decide what you should be worried about.
Our team can be a partner to make sure you’re not left alone to phase those worries and can map out an actionable plan. Use the code ANXIETY40 to get 40% off initial appointments -- both General Wellness and all of the weight management appointments.
