Presence Answers
Straight answers, including the ones that lose us the sale
An organised answer centre rather than a blog. Start with a category, or open a question below for the short answer and a link to the page that explains it fully. Where the answer is 'not virtually' or 'not guaranteed', we say that.
If this is an emergency — chest pain, trouble breathing, stroke symptoms, severe bleeding or thoughts of self-harm — call 911 or go to the nearest emergency department.
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Search by symptom, medication, cost question or topic. Only finished, published answers appear here — anything still being written or awaiting clinical sign-off is not listed.
72 answers
- What is direct primary care?
- How does direct primary care work day to day?
- How is direct primary care different from traditional insurance-based primary care?
- What is the difference between direct primary care and concierge medicine?
- Can you use direct primary care if you already have insurance?
- How much does direct primary care cost?
- What can telehealth actually help with?
- When should you use virtual care instead of going somewhere?
- Should I use telehealth or go to urgent care?
- How does an online medical visit actually work?
- Can you use telehealth without insurance?
- How much does telehealth cost?
- What are your healthcare options without insurance?
- How can a family with a high deductible afford routine care?
- How can I reduce what I spend on routine healthcare?
- Is a primary care membership better than paying per visit?
- What is adult-gerontology primary care?
- How do I choose primary care for an aging parent?
- Why does continuity of care matter for older adults?
- How does a medication review work for older adults?
- What healthcare options does a small business actually have?
- How can we offer employees healthcare without buying group insurance?
- Does better primary care access reduce employee absence?
- How do we actually roll out a primary care benefit?
- Can a nurse practitioner be your primary care provider in Texas?
- What is self-pay primary care?
- How does telehealth work for a whole family?
- Can children use telehealth?
- How do prescription refills work with telehealth?
- How do labs and imaging work with virtual care?
- How much does a doctor visit cost without insurance in Fort Worth?
- Can I see a provider without insurance in DFW?
- What are affordable family healthcare options in DFW?
- What are the healthcare options for self-employed and 1099 workers?
- Can an online provider treat a UTI?
- Can telehealth treat a sinus infection?
- Can telehealth treat pink eye?
- Can telehealth treat a rash?
- Can telehealth treat allergies?
- Can telehealth treat high blood pressure?
- Can telehealth prescribe antibiotics?
- Can I get blood pressure medication online?
- How much does telehealth cost without insurance?
- Is telehealth cheaper than urgent care?
- What conditions can telehealth treat?
- What cannot be treated through telehealth?
- When should I use telehealth instead of urgent care?
- How does preventive care work when your primary care is virtual?
- How often should an older adult see a primary care provider?
- Does telehealth work well for older adults?
- What does preventive care look like after 65?
- What is polypharmacy, and how is it managed?
- How can I help an aging parent manage their healthcare and medications?
- How are falls prevented, and when is dizziness an emergency?
- How are blood pressure and diabetes managed in older adults?
- For an older adult, when is it primary care, urgent care or the emergency room?
- What preventive care and screening do women need at each age?
- What happens in perimenopause and menopause, and when should I see a provider?
- Why do I keep getting UTIs, and what should be done about it?
- Which blood tests matter most for women, and when?
- Which women's health concerns can be handled virtually, and which need an office visit?
- What preventive care and screening do men need, and when?
- How are blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar managed in men?
- What do men most often delay raising with a provider?
- Which men's health concerns can be handled virtually, and which need an office visit?
- What blood tests does primary care usually order, and why?
- What do a CBC and a CMP actually show?
- What do A1c and cholesterol results actually mean?
- What does a TSH test show, and when is thyroid testing worthwhile?
- Do I need to fast for blood work?
- How often should you get routine blood work?
- What happens after an abnormal lab result?
Browse by category
Each category holds the full answers for one part of healthcare — virtual care, primary care, symptoms and conditions, medications, labs, costs, choosing the right setting, prevention, family care and more. Every category links to the care or membership page that owns the decision, so you can read first and act when you are ready.
Virtual care & telehealth
What a virtual visit can and cannot do, when to use it instead of urgent care, and how a visit works start to finish.
Primary care & direct primary care
What membership medicine is, how it differs from insurance-based and concierge care, and what it actually costs.
Affordable & self-pay healthcare
Practical options for households without insurance, with a high deductible, or simply tired of unpredictable bills.
Family & pediatric virtual care
How household virtual care works, what a child's virtual visit can cover, and where the age boundaries sit.
Prescriptions & refills
How a refill evaluation works virtually, what may be prescribed, and what will never be prescribed online.
Labs, imaging & testing
How testing is ordered from a virtual visit, where you go for the draw or scan, and how results are reviewed.
DFW local care
What care costs locally without insurance, how to be seen without coverage, and where local in-office visits happen.
Self-employed, 1099 & gig workers
Healthcare options when nobody provides a benefit for you, and how membership care fits alongside coverage.
Older adults & caregivers
Choosing primary care for yourself or an aging parent, why continuity matters, and how medication review works.
Employers & small business
How small employers add real primary-care access without buying a second insurance plan.
Symptoms & conditions
What a virtual visit can realistically assess for everyday problems — and the findings that need hands-on care instead.
Medications & prescribing
What may be prescribed after a virtual assessment, what needs monitoring first, and what is never prescribed online here.
Healthcare costs & price transparency
What Presence care costs, how membership maths actually works, and how to ask any practice for a price before you agree to it.
Urgent vs primary vs virtual care
Which setting fits which problem, what each one can do, and how to avoid paying for the wrong kind of visit.
Preventive care & ongoing management
How prevention and long-term condition management work when your primary care is virtual-first.
Women's health
Preventive care, screening, menopause, recurrent urinary infections and the tests that come up most — inside verified scope.
Men's health
Preventive care, the three numbers that matter most, and the concerns men most often leave unsaid.
Prefer the full library in one list? Open the resource centre.
How to use this page
Pick the section that matches your situation and open the question. Every answer states what is possible, what is not, and who provides the care — Presence visits are delivered by licensed providers including a board-certified Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner, while Whole Family Virtual Care visits are provided by that network's clinicians.
Three things are true throughout: no visit guarantees a prescription or a note, a membership is not insurance, and virtual care cannot examine, image or treat an emergency.
Getting care now
Same-day, after-hours and what to do when you cannot wait.
Can I see a provider today?
Yes — same-day virtual visits are the normal case, and unlimited members have access at any hour.
You are not queued into an appointment grid. A visit is requested, a licensed provider takes your history, and the visit happens by phone or video. We do not promise a specific minute, because that would be a promise about staffing rather than about care.
Limits: Not an emergency service. Anything severe or frightening belongs in an emergency department.
Can I get care tonight, or on a weekend?
Yes. Membership virtual care runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, including holidays.
Overnight and weekend illness is the single most common reason people join. Whole Family Virtual Care covers everyone in the household at any hour; Presence membership plans include after-hours virtual access for the member.
Limits: Overnight virtual care cannot examine, image or stitch anything. Severe symptoms go to an emergency department.
Full detail: 24 7 virtual care · See Whole Family Virtual Care
My own practice cannot see me for weeks. What are my options?
Start virtually today. A great deal of everyday illness can be assessed and handled without waiting for the appointment you already hold.
You do not need to leave your existing practice. Many people use Presence for the gap — the acute problem, the refill, the result nobody explained — and keep their appointment for the rest.
Limits: If the problem needs an examination or imaging, a virtual visit will say so rather than fill the gap badly.
When should I go to urgent care instead of a virtual visit?
Go to urgent care when something must be looked at, listened to, imaged, stitched or tested on the spot.
Virtual care is strong for history-driven problems: respiratory illness, urinary symptoms, skin complaints you can show, medication questions, results review. Urgent care wins for injuries, wounds, possible fractures, ear examinations and anything needing hands or equipment.
Limits: Emergency symptoms are not an urgent-care decision either — call 911.
How long will I wait for a virtual visit?
Usually a short wait, and same-day in the ordinary case. We do not publish a guaranteed response time.
A specific minute count would be a staffing promise rather than a care promise, and the honest answer varies with time of day. Whole Family network access runs at any hour, all year.
Limits: No guaranteed wait time; emergencies must not wait at all.
What does 24/7 virtual care actually mean?
Access to a licensed provider 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, including nights, weekends and holidays — not a callback queue that opens at 8am.
For the Whole Family membership this covers everyone in the household, in all 50 states. For Presence plans it is virtual access for the member.
Limits: 24/7 access is not emergency care and cannot examine or image anything.
Full detail: 24 7 virtual care · See Whole Family Virtual Care
There are several options — which one is for me?
Start Here routes you in one screen by situation: care now, household membership, ongoing primary care, older-adult care, labs and imaging, or coverage verification.
Choice overload is the main reason people leave a healthcare site without acting, so the router is deliberately short and states the price of each path.
Limits: Emergency symptoms bypass every option: call 911.
What virtual care can handle
Which problems suit a virtual visit, and how the visit works.
How does a virtual visit actually work?
You request a visit, a licensed provider takes your history by phone or video, and you leave with a plan — treatment where appropriate, testing where it changes the answer, or a clear instruction to be seen.
For most everyday illness, the history is the majority of the assessment. On video a provider can also see your throat, eyes, skin, breathing effort and how unwell you look. What cannot be done remotely — listening to your chest, examining ears, palpating an abdomen — is said plainly rather than worked around.
Limits: No remote examination replaces hands and instruments where those decide the diagnosis.
How do I prepare for a virtual visit?
Have your medication list, your pharmacy, when the problem started, what you have already tried, and — for anything visible — good light and a clear photo.
The visits that end in a decision rather than a follow-up are the ones where the timeline is clear: when it started, how it has changed, what makes it better or worse, any fever, any exposure, and what other conditions you carry. Take your temperature beforehand if you have a thermometer, and write down the questions you actually want answered.
Limits: A photograph never guarantees a diagnosis; it improves the odds of one.
Should I choose a phone visit or a video visit?
Choose video when there is something to look at — a rash, an eye, swelling, a wound. Phone is enough when the answer comes from your history.
A phone visit at $39 handles sore throats, coughs, sinus pressure, urinary symptoms, medication questions and follow-up conversations. A video visit at $49 earns its extra cost the moment a provider needs to see distribution, colour, swelling or how hard you are working to breathe. No smartphone is needed for a phone visit.
Limits: Neither modality can perform an examination that requires touch or instruments.
What is QuickCare, and when is it enough?
QuickCare from $19.99 is the lowest-cost route for a straightforward, familiar problem that does not need a conversation or a look.
It suits repeat, well-defined issues where your history is already clear. Anything ambiguous, worsening, or visible is better served by a phone or video visit, and a provider will move you up rather than force a decision through the wrong channel.
Limits: No asynchronous diagnosis or treatment is claimed; a licensed provider still makes every clinical decision.
Can someone look at this rash online?
Often, yes. Skin is one of the areas where video genuinely helps, because a provider can see distribution, colour, texture and how it has changed.
Contact and irritant reactions, insect bites, shingles-pattern rashes, common fungal rashes, eczema flares and hives may be appropriate for virtual evaluation. What needs hands or instruments — palpation, a scraping, drainage of an abscess, a biopsy, dermoscopy of a changing mole — is a referral rather than a video call.
Limits: Be seen in person if the rash spreads fast, blisters, involves eyes, mouth or genitals, comes with fever and feeling very unwell, or does not fade when pressed.
Can a urinary infection be handled online?
For an otherwise healthy adult with typical lower urinary symptoms, a virtual evaluation is frequently a reasonable starting point.
A provider takes the history, decides whether a urine culture should come first, and treats when treatment is indicated. Recurrent episodes deserve a proper work-up rather than a series of repeat prescriptions.
Limits: Fever, chills, flank or back pain, vomiting, pregnancy, catheters, kidney stones, symptoms in men with prostate history, or blood in the urine need in-person assessment.
Can a sore throat or cough be assessed virtually?
Yes, commonly. History plus a look at the throat on video settles most of it, and testing can be ordered locally when a result would change the plan.
Strep and respiratory testing can be ordered near you at member pricing. What a virtual provider cannot do is listen to your chest, so if the decision turns on that — suspected pneumonia, wheeze at rest, low oxygen — you will be sent to be examined.
Limits: Breathing difficulty at rest, chest pain, dehydration or inability to swallow fluids need in-person or emergency care.
Can sinus problems be treated through a virtual visit?
Usually a reasonable place to start. Duration and pattern of symptoms drive the decision far more than any examination finding.
Most sinus symptoms are viral and improve without antibiotics. Where the history fits a bacterial pattern, treatment may be appropriate. Recurrent or year-round symptoms are worth a proper plan rather than repeated short courses of treatment.
Limits: Swelling around the eye, vision change, severe headache with fever, or confusion need urgent in-person assessment.
Can an eye problem be looked at on video?
Mild eye redness and irritation may be appropriate for virtual evaluation on video.
Most simple conjunctivitis is manageable from a good look plus your history. Anything involving vision, pain, light sensitivity, contact lenses or possible injury needs an eye examination with equipment a camera does not replace.
Limits: Vision change, severe pain, light sensitivity, trauma or a foreign body need same-day in-person eye assessment.
Can stomach upset or diarrhoea be handled virtually?
Mild, short-lived stomach upset without severe pain may be appropriate for virtual evaluation, mainly to judge hydration and whether you need to be seen.
A provider will ask about fluid intake, urine output, fever, blood, recent travel, medications and how long it has run. The main decisions are hydration, red flags and whether testing is worthwhile.
Limits: Severe or localised abdominal pain, persistent vomiting, blood in stool or vomit, signs of dehydration or pregnancy need in-person care.
Can a strain, sprain or back pain be assessed virtually?
Sometimes, for advice, red-flag screening and a plan — but not where a fracture or a joint injury needs examining and imaging.
A provider can screen for the warning signs that change everything, discuss what usually helps, and order imaging locally at member pricing when it is indicated. If the mechanism of injury or your findings suggest a fracture, you go for imaging first.
Limits: Inability to bear weight, deformity, numbness, loss of bowel or bladder control, or back pain with fever need urgent in-person assessment.
Can a chronic condition be followed up virtually?
Yes — chronic follow-up is one of the best uses of virtual care, provided monitoring and labs happen on schedule.
Blood pressure readings from home, glucose logs, weight trends and lab results carry most of a follow-up visit. Labs are ordered locally at member pricing, and membership care is the better structure for it than a series of one-off visits.
Limits: Some conditions need in-person examination at intervals; new or worsening symptoms need assessment rather than a routine check-in.
Can I have an annual physical virtually?
Part of it. History, risk review, screening planning and lab ordering work virtually; the hands-on examination and vitals do not.
A sensible pattern is a virtual planning visit, labs drawn locally at member pricing, then either an in-person examination in Dallas–Fort Worth or coordination with a local clinician. Forms and sports physicals requiring an in-person examination cannot be signed off remotely.
Limits: Anything requiring measurement, auscultation or a physical examination must be done in person.
Can women's health concerns be handled virtually?
Some can, within scope: symptom review, medication discussion, lab ordering and follow-up. Anything requiring an examination or a procedure cannot.
Presence offers specific programmes, including menopause and hormone care, with their own pages and their own boundaries. Pregnancy-related symptoms, bleeding or pain need in-person assessment.
Limits: No pelvic examination, no cervical screening, no obstetric care, and no imaging remotely.
Can men's health concerns be handled virtually?
Within scope, and with labs. Presence runs specific programmes with their own criteria; ordinary concerns go through a normal virtual visit.
Anything hormonal requires baseline labs and monitoring, which are arranged locally at member pricing rather than skipped. Treatment is never automatic.
Limits: No guaranteed prescription; some evaluations require examination or specialist referral.
Do you offer medical weight management?
Yes, as a structured programme with its own criteria, monitoring and pricing — not as a prescription on request.
Eligibility, baseline labs and follow-up are part of it. Anyone offering a weight medication without those is skipping the parts that make it safe.
Limits: No guaranteed prescription; programme criteria and monitoring apply.
Can I get a second opinion on what I have been told?
You can have a visit to review your situation, records and results and discuss options. It is a primary care perspective, not a specialist adjudication.
It is most useful where nobody has explained the reasoning, or where a result was handed over without context. Where a specialist opinion is what you need, we will say so.
Limits: Not a specialist opinion, and not a review of another clinician's conduct.
I keep getting the same infection. What should I do differently?
Stop treating it as a series of one-off visits. Recurrence deserves a plan: culture history, pattern review, sometimes imaging or specialist input.
This is the clearest case where ongoing membership care beats repeat urgent visits — the same clinician can see the pattern rather than treating episode four as episode one.
Limits: Repeat prescriptions without evaluation are not appropriate care; red flags need in-person assessment.
Prescriptions and refills
Refill evaluations, new medications, and what we will not prescribe.
Can I get antibiotics online?
Sometimes — only if a provider decides antibiotics are clinically indicated after evaluating you. No visit guarantees an antibiotic.
Most coughs, colds and sore throats are viral, and an antibiotic would do nothing but cause side effects and resistance. When the assessment does point to a bacterial infection, a prescription can be sent to your pharmacy. A practice that promises an antibiotic before evaluating you is not one to trust with your health.
Limits: No guaranteed prescription. Worsening symptoms, high fever or breathing difficulty need in-person assessment.
Can I refill my medication without going in?
Usually yes, after a refill evaluation — a provider reviews the medication, your recent monitoring and how you are doing, then sends the refill if it is appropriate.
Maintenance medications for blood pressure, thyroid, diabetes, cholesterol and asthma are the common cases. Some need a recent lab result or a reading before a longer refill is safe, which can be arranged locally at member pricing.
Limits: No refill is guaranteed. Controlled substances are not prescribed or refilled virtually.
Full detail: online prescription refills · Start a refill evaluation
Can you prescribe controlled medications?
No. Presence does not prescribe or refill controlled substances virtually.
That includes stimulants, benzodiazepines and opioid pain medication. This is a deliberate boundary rather than a queue you can join, and we will say so immediately rather than take payment first.
Limits: If you rely on such a medication, keep an in-person prescriber; do not delay care waiting on a virtual answer.
Which pharmacy will my prescription go to?
Yours. Tell the provider which pharmacy you use and the prescription is sent there electronically when one is appropriate.
Member pricing is also available on many common generic medications through partner pharmacies, which is worth asking about for long-term maintenance drugs.
Limits: Availability and stock are the pharmacy's, not ours.
Can a new medication be started in a virtual visit?
Sometimes, when the evaluation supports it and any needed baseline monitoring is in place.
Starting a long-term medication responsibly usually means a recent set of readings or labs, a discussion of alternatives and a follow-up plan. All three are workable virtually with local labs; what is not workable is starting something blind.
Limits: No prescription is guaranteed. Some medications require in-person assessment or monitoring we cannot provide remotely.
Can I just ask a question about my medication?
Yes, and it is one of the cheapest useful things you can do — a short visit is far better than guessing or stopping something on your own.
Bring the full list, including supplements and over-the-counter products. For older adults, a full medication review is part of ongoing membership care rather than a one-off question.
Limits: Never stop or change a prescribed medication based on a web page. Severe reactions are emergencies.
Work and school notes
Documentation that follows a clinical finding — never guaranteed.
Can I get a work note online?
Often yes — documentation follows the clinical finding of the visit. It is never guaranteed in advance.
A provider evaluates you and, where the findings support it, can provide documentation of the encounter and any recommended time away. What cannot be done is issuing a note without an evaluation, or backdating one.
Limits: No guaranteed note. Some employer or agency forms require an in-person examination.
Can I get a school note for my child?
Through the right pathway, often yes. For a child under 13 that is Whole Family Virtual Care, whose network clinicians see all ages.
Presence one-time care is for ages 13 and older, so an under-13 request is routed to the household membership rather than turned away. Documentation still follows the clinical finding of that visit.
Limits: No guaranteed documentation, and school forms requiring an examination need in-person care.
Full detail: work and school notes · See Whole Family Virtual Care
Can you clear me to return to work?
Sometimes, for ordinary illness where the assessment supports it. Occupational clearances that require physical testing or an employer's own examiner do not work remotely.
Tell us what the employer actually requires before you book — the form matters more than the illness. If it needs a physical examination, drug screening or a designated examiner, a virtual visit is the wrong tool and we will say so.
Limits: We cannot certify anything we cannot assess, and cannot override an employer's designated process.
Can you complete disability or leave paperwork?
Not from a single virtual visit. Leave and disability forms generally require an established care relationship and records we would not yet hold.
Ongoing membership primary care is the appropriate structure: a provider who knows your history can complete forms responsibly. A one-off visit cannot honestly attest to a longitudinal condition.
Limits: No form completion is promised; each request is judged on the records available.
Can you do a sports or camp physical?
Not virtually — those forms require an in-person examination.
In-person visits are available in Dallas–Fort Worth. Elsewhere, use a local clinic; we will tell you rather than take a booking that cannot produce the form.
Limits: No remote clearance for forms requiring physical examination.
Labs, blood work and imaging
Ordering, pricing and understanding results.
Can a virtual provider order lab work?
Yes. Labs are ordered through your provider and drawn at a facility near you, at member pricing with no insurance required.
Because the price is quoted before anything is ordered, the usual reason people skip a work-up — not knowing what the bill will be — is removed. Savings of up to 80–90% are compared with traditional hospital pricing; not every test saves that much, which is why we quote your actual price.
Limits: Not every test is available at every partner facility, and prices vary by test and location.
Full detail: labs imaging savings · Labs and imaging pricing
Can someone review my blood work with me?
Yes — including results drawn elsewhere. A result review goes through what the values mean, what they do not mean, and what happens next.
People routinely receive a portal number with no explanation. A review puts the values into the context of your history and medications, and decides whether repeat testing, treatment or referral is the right next step.
Limits: A review cannot settle everything; some results require examination, imaging or specialist input.
What does an X-ray, ultrasound, CT or MRI cost without insurance?
Member pricing through imaging partners, quoted before you go. Imaging is where price shopping matters most — the same study can differ enormously between facilities.
Tell us the study and your location and we quote a range and tell you what to ask for. Savings of up to 80–90% are compared with traditional hospital pricing and require no insurance; the actual figure depends on the study, facility and location.
Limits: Imaging, labs and specialist services are not included in membership dues. Amounts are not guaranteed and are not insurance benefits.
Are labs included in my membership?
No — labs, imaging, medications, specialist care and emergency care are not included in dues. Membership gives you access to negotiated pricing on them.
This distinction matters and we state it everywhere: dues buy access to care and to partner pricing, not the tests themselves. The pricing is what usually makes a work-up affordable.
Limits: Partner pricing varies by test, study, medication, facility and availability, and is not insurance.
I already have a lab order — can you just price it?
Yes. Send the test names and we quote the member self-pay price before anything is drawn.
You are not obliged to use the facility your order was written for. Knowing the price first is usually the difference between following through and postponing the work-up indefinitely.
Limits: Some panels are only available through particular partners; a quote is specific to your tests and location.
What screening should I be having?
It depends on your age, sex, family history and risk factors — that is precisely what a preventive planning visit is for.
A provider maps which screening is due, orders what can be ordered at member pricing, and tells you what must be done in person. We do not publish generic screening schedules as if they applied to everyone.
Limits: Screening recommendations are individual; some require in-person procedures we do not provide.
Children and family
Age routing, household cover and overnight care for children.
Can a child use telehealth?
Yes, through Whole Family Virtual Care, whose network clinicians see all ages. Presence one-time care is for ages 13 and older.
There is no Presence-imposed pediatric age cut-off on the network pathway. Network clinicians decide case by case whether a concern is appropriate for virtual management and refer to in-person, urgent or emergency care when it is not.
Limits: Infants and young children with fever, breathing difficulty, dehydration or reduced responsiveness need in-person assessment.
Full detail: pediatric virtual care · See Whole Family Virtual Care
My child is sick at 2am. What can I do?
Whole Family Virtual Care is the overnight pathway: 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, for everyone in the household.
It is the reason many households enrol — one membership at $19.99 a month, available at 2am, rather than a decision between an emergency-department bill and waiting until morning.
Limits: Breathing difficulty, a fever in a very young infant, dehydration, a non-fading rash or reduced responsiveness are emergencies — call 911.
Full detail: 24 7 virtual care · See Whole Family Virtual Care
Why can't Presence see my child under 13 directly?
Presence's own one-time clinical pathway is for ages 13 and older. Younger children are seen through the Whole Family network, which is staffed for all ages.
This is a scope decision, stated plainly so nobody books the wrong visit. The routing is never a dead end: an under-13 request goes to the household membership, which covers everyone at home.
Limits: Presence's provider is a board-certified Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner; we never imply she personally treats younger children.
Full detail: pediatric virtual care · See Whole Family Virtual Care
Who counts as my household on the family membership?
Everyone living in your household, adults and children, for $19.99 a month.
It is one membership rather than a per-person price, which is why it changes behaviour: nobody at home is triaged by cost at 11pm. Material terms: $39.99 one-time registration, a 12-month commitment billed monthly, automatically renewing.
Limits: It is a membership, not insurance, and there are no copays only for membership-covered self-pay services.
Full detail: national family virtual care · See Whole Family Virtual Care
Everyone at home is ill at once — what is the cheapest way through it?
A household membership, because it covers each of them at no additional per-visit cost for included virtual care.
Paying per visit for three or four people in one week is where families get hurt. One household membership at $19.99 a month is usually less than a single urgent-care visit.
Limits: Network clinicians still decide what is appropriate virtually, and will refer anyone who needs examining.
Full detail: family virtual health · See Whole Family Virtual Care
Does this work for a young adult or student away from home?
Yes — for ages 13 and older through Presence where licensed, and anywhere in the country through the household membership.
A student in another state is exactly the case the nationwide network handles well: care where they physically are, at any hour, on the household membership.
Limits: Adult students control their own care decisions and consent.
Full detail: national family virtual care · See Whole Family Virtual Care
Older adults and caregivers
Adult-gerontology care, medication review and long-distance caregiving.
Is virtual care suitable for an older adult?
Frequently yes, and often better — no drive, no waiting room, and a provider trained specifically in adult and older-adult primary care.
Presence care is delivered by a board-certified Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner. For older adults the wins are time, continuity and a proper medication review rather than a seven-minute appointment.
Limits: Falls, confusion, chest pain, breathing difficulty or a sudden change in function need in-person or emergency assessment.
Can someone review all of my parent's medications?
Yes — a full medication review is part of ongoing membership care: every prescription, supplement and over-the-counter product looked at together.
The value is not a list; it is the questions nobody has asked. What is this still for, what interacts, what may be contributing to dizziness or confusion, and what could be reduced in coordination with the other prescribers.
Limits: Any change is a clinical decision made with the patient and their other prescribers. Nothing is stopped on the basis of a web page.
I live in another state from my parent. Can you help?
Care is provided where the patient is physically located. If your parent is outside Texas or Illinois, the practical route is the nationwide household membership.
You can be present on the visit with your parent's consent, which is often the most useful thing a distant adult child can do. Whole Family Virtual Care operates in all 50 states including Alaska and Hawaii, at any hour.
Limits: Consent rules apply; we cannot discuss an adult's care without their authorisation.
Full detail: care for aging parents · See Whole Family Virtual Care
Cost and paying without insurance
Published prices, self-pay, HSA/FSA and employer options.
Do I need insurance to be seen?
No. Prices are published and payable directly: QuickCare from $19.99, phone $39, video $49, and $99 for a member in-person visit.
Insurance options are available; coverage and in-network status vary by plan and must be verified before the visit. Most people who come to us are choosing self-pay deliberately because the price is known in advance.
Limits: Self-pay prices are not insurance benefits and do not apply to third-party facility charges.
What does a visit cost?
QuickCare from $19.99, a phone visit $39, a video visit $49, and $99 for an in-person visit as a member.
Unlimited members pay no per-visit fee for included virtual care. Memberships run from $19.99 a month for individual virtual care to $219 for a family of up to five with unlimited care; a one-time $49 onboarding fee applies.
Limits: Labs, imaging, medications, specialist and emergency care are separate from dues.
Should I join a membership or just pay per visit?
One or two visits a year: pay per visit. Regular care, a chronic condition or a household: a membership almost always costs less.
The break-even arrives quickly, and membership adds member pricing on labs, imaging and many generics — which is where the real money is for anyone having a work-up.
Limits: Memberships are not insurance and do not replace major medical coverage.
Can I use HSA or FSA funds?
Many care costs are HSA/FSA eligible; membership dues may not be. Check with your plan administrator, because eligibility is theirs to determine.
We publish what we know and do not overstate it. Visit fees, labs, imaging and medications are the usual eligible categories; periodic membership dues are treated differently by different administrators.
Limits: We do not give tax advice and cannot guarantee any administrator's decision.
I have insurance with a big deductible. Is self-pay cheaper?
Often, yes — especially for labs and imaging. We will show you the self-pay price so you can compare it against what your deductible would cost you.
Below the deductible you are usually paying the negotiated rate yourself anyway. That is exactly where published self-pay pricing and partner lab and imaging rates win.
Limits: Self-pay amounts generally do not count toward your deductible. Verify with your plan.
Are there hidden fees?
No. Visit prices are published, membership dues and the one-time $49 onboarding fee are stated, and third-party costs such as labs, imaging and medications are quoted before they are ordered.
Whole Family Virtual Care has its own stated terms: $19.99 a month for the household, $39.99 one-time registration, a 12-month commitment billed monthly, automatically renewing.
Limits: Facility and pharmacy charges are set by those third parties, not by Presence.
Are there really no copays?
There are no copays for services covered by the self-pay Whole Family membership. That statement applies to membership-covered care only — never to anything billed through insurance or Medicare.
We keep that qualifier attached everywhere, because a blanket 'no copays' claim would be misleading the moment any service is billed to a payer.
Limits: Insurance and Medicare cost-sharing is set by those plans and is unaffected by any membership.
Full detail: national family virtual care · See Whole Family Virtual Care
Can I offer this to my employees?
Yes. Per-employee memberships give a team 24/7 virtual access and member pricing on labs and imaging at a fraction of premium cost.
It is not insurance and is not a replacement for major medical coverage; many employers use it alongside a high-deductible plan or as the only realistic benefit they can fund.
Limits: Not insurance; no claim about ACA compliance or benefit substitution.
I am self-employed with no coverage. Where do I start?
Start with a $19.99 monthly virtual membership so that care is never a money decision, then add catastrophic coverage when you can.
The failure mode for self-employed people is not the big claim; it is postponing the small thing until it becomes the big thing. Membership plus member lab pricing removes most of that risk cheaply.
Limits: Membership is not insurance and does not protect against hospital costs.
I am between jobs and lost my coverage. What now?
Membership covers the everyday layer immediately at $19.99 a month, with published prices for anything extra.
It is the cheapest way to keep chronic conditions managed and refills going during a gap. Keep looking for catastrophic coverage in parallel — membership does not replace it.
Limits: Not insurance; hospital and specialist costs remain your exposure.
Full detail: healthcare without insurance · Compare memberships
How does this compare with the cost of urgent care or an emergency department?
A virtual visit from $19.99 is a fraction of a typical urgent-care or emergency-department bill, for the problems it is suited to.
The saving is real only when virtual care is clinically appropriate. Using it for something that needs examining costs more in the end, which is why the red flags come first on every clinical page.
Limits: We publish our own prices and do not quote third-party facility charges.
Can you help with the cost of my medications?
Member pricing is available on many common generic medications through partner pharmacies, including several long-term maintenance drugs.
Bring your list and we will tell you what is likely available at a better price. Amounts vary by medication, pharmacy and availability, and this is not an insurance benefit.
Limits: Not every medication is discounted; savings are not guaranteed.
Insurance and Medicare
What we can and cannot say about coverage today.
Do you take my insurance?
Insurance options are available; coverage and in-network status vary by plan and must be verified before the visit. We do not claim to be in-network with any particular plan.
Payer contracts are not finalised, so we say exactly that rather than implying coverage. The practical route is to verify your specific plan's telehealth and out-of-network terms before you book, and to compare the published self-pay price while you do.
Limits: No carrier names, no in-network claim and no promise of coverage or reimbursement.
Can Medicare patients use Presence?
Medicare patients are welcome, and membership is paid privately: Presence is not currently able to bill Medicare.
Original Medicare and Medicare Advantage work differently — Advantage plans set their own networks and rules, which must be verified plan by plan. Membership never replaces your Medicare coverage for hospital, specialist or emergency care.
Limits: We never claim that all Medicare plans are accepted, and this is educational information rather than enrolment or benefits advice.
Is a membership the same as insurance?
No. A membership buys access to care and to partner pricing. It is not insurance and does not cover hospital stays, surgery, specialists or emergencies.
Many members carry a high-deductible plan for catastrophic risk and use membership for everyday care, which is the combination that usually costs least overall.
Limits: Not insurance, not a health-sharing plan, and not a substitute for major medical coverage.
How do I verify whether my plan covers a virtual visit?
Ask your plan four things: is telehealth covered, what is the cost-sharing, are out-of-network telehealth visits covered, and what documentation do you need for reimbursement.
Get the answer in writing or note the reference number. Then compare it against our published self-pay price — for a $39 phone visit, verification sometimes costs more effort than the visit does.
Limits: Only your plan can confirm your benefits; nothing on this site is a coverage determination.
Full detail: insurance telehealth · Verification, step by step
Do you work with health-sharing or faith-based plans?
Membership is paid directly and is not insurance or a health-sharing plan. If you belong to a sharing community, ask them how they treat direct membership fees and self-pay care.
Many people pair a sharing plan for large costs with a membership for everyday care. We do not claim any partnership or reimbursement arrangement.
Limits: No partnership, reimbursement or eligibility claim is made.
I use VA or another government programme. Can I still join?
You can pay for a membership or a visit privately. We make no claim about billing, coordination or reimbursement with any government programme.
Check with your programme before assuming any cost is reimbursable. Our published self-pay prices apply regardless.
Limits: No government payer billing; no reimbursement promise.
Membership and ongoing care
Direct primary care, continuity, terms and enrolment.
Will my family see the same clinician every time?
Not necessarily on a network visit — we will not promise that. What the membership does give is one household account, year-round access, and history available to the next clinician.
If a named provider who knows your history is what you want, that is Presence membership primary care rather than the national network, and it is available where our provider is licensed.
Limits: Continuity of records depends on what the platform supports; we describe it no further than that.
Full detail: same primary care provider · Membership primary care
What is direct primary care?
A monthly membership paid directly to the practice for primary care, instead of the practice being paid per visit by an insurer.
Removing insurance billing from everyday primary care removes the reason visits are seven minutes long. It buys time, direct access and continuity. It is not insurance, and you should keep coverage for hospital and specialist care.
Limits: Not insurance; does not cover hospital, surgical, specialist or emergency care.
How is this different from concierge medicine?
Concierge practices typically charge a retainer on top of billing your insurance. Direct primary care replaces that billing for everyday care with one transparent membership.
The practical differences are price and honesty about what you get: concierge retainers are usually multiples of a DPC membership, and DPC pricing is published rather than quoted privately.
Limits: Descriptions of other models are general; individual practices vary.
Full detail: dpc vs concierge medicine · Compare memberships
How is membership care different from a traditional insurance-based practice?
Longer visits, direct access to your provider, published pricing, and member pricing on labs and imaging — because the practice is paid by you rather than per billable encounter.
You can keep your existing practice and use membership for the everyday layer. Nothing requires you to leave a clinician you like.
Limits: Membership does not replace insurance, and specialists and hospitals bill separately.
Full detail: dpc vs traditional primary care · Compare memberships
Will I actually get more than ten minutes?
Yes — longer visits are the structure of membership care rather than an upgrade you buy on top of it.
Time is what makes the difference for multiple problems, a complicated medication list, or a story nobody has taken properly. That is the whole reason the model exists.
Limits: Visit length is clinical judgement, not a contractual minute count.
Full detail: longer primary care visits · Compare memberships
Can I message or call my provider directly?
Direct access between visits is part of membership care, within reasonable hours and clinical judgement.
Most between-visit questions do not need an appointment; they need an answer. What direct access is not is an emergency line or a guarantee of an immediate reply at any hour.
Limits: Not for emergencies. Urgent symptoms go to 911 or an emergency department.
Can I cancel a membership?
Presence membership terms, including any commitment period, are set out in the membership terms and provided before you enrol. Whole Family Virtual Care carries a 12-month commitment, billed monthly, which renews automatically.
We put the terms in front of you rather than in a footer, because a surprise renewal is the fastest way to lose someone's trust.
Limits: The approved membership agreement governs; the summary on site is plain-language.
What is the onboarding or registration fee?
Presence memberships carry a one-time $49 onboarding fee. Whole Family Virtual Care has a separate $39.99 one-time registration fee.
They are different products with different terms, which is why both numbers are stated wherever the relevant offer appears rather than merged into one figure.
Limits: Fees are stated before enrolment and are not insurance premiums.
Which membership plan should I choose?
Individual virtual care is $19.99 a month; family or couple virtual is $29.99; Individual Unlimited is $79 for ages 19–44, $89 for ages 45–64 and $109 for ages 65+; Family Unlimited is $219 for up to five, plus $29 per additional child after five. Whole Family Virtual Care is $19.99 a month for the whole household.
Choose unlimited if you expect regular in-person care and value an ongoing relationship; choose virtual if access at any hour is the priority. Age-based Individual Unlimited pricing reflects the time and attention different stages of adulthood may need. Members pay $99 for an in-person visit on the virtual plans.
Limits: Plans are memberships, not insurance, and exclude labs, imaging, medication, specialist and emergency costs.
Can I keep my current doctor and still join?
Yes. Many members keep their existing practice and use Presence for access, everyday problems, refill evaluations and result reviews.
We will coordinate rather than compete: records can be shared with your consent, and we will tell you when something belongs with your established clinician or a specialist.
Limits: We do not take over specialist management or hospital care.
Why does continuity of care matter?
Because a provider who knows your history spots patterns a one-off visit cannot: the third infection this year, the medication that started the dizziness, the trend in your labs.
One-off visits solve today. Continuity solves the reason today keeps happening. We describe it without claiming outcomes we have not measured.
Limits: No superiority or outcome claim is made beyond the practical description above.
Full detail: same primary care provider · Compare memberships
What happens on my first membership visit?
A long first visit: full history, medication review, what you actually want from care, and a plan including any labs at member pricing.
It is deliberately longer than a standard appointment because everything afterwards depends on getting it right once.
Limits: A first visit is not a physical examination unless it happens in person.
How do I actually join?
Contact us, choose the plan that matches how you will use care, complete enrolment, and your access starts. Whole Family enrolment is separate, with its own registration fee and terms.
We state the terms before you pay: dues, one-time fees, commitment period and renewal. Nothing material is left to a footnote.
Limits: The approved membership agreement governs.
Why choose Presence over a large telehealth app?
Published prices, a named provider for Presence care, member pricing on labs and imaging, and honesty about what virtual care cannot do.
Large platforms are optimised for visit volume. Presence is built around continuity, the cost of what happens after the visit, and being told plainly when you need to be seen. We make no superiority claim beyond what those pages describe.
Limits: No comparative outcome, rating or quality claim about other services.
Where we can help
Texas, Illinois, in-person care and nationwide household cover.
Can you see me anywhere in Texas?
Virtual visits are available across Texas. In-person care is Dallas–Fort Worth only.
Licensure follows where the patient is located at the time of the visit, which is why the virtual footprint and the in-person footprint are different and stated separately.
Limits: No claim of in-person availability outside Dallas–Fort Worth.
Are you licensed in Illinois?
Yes. Our provider is licensed in Illinois, and applicable virtual care is operational there with Illinois-specific rates.
In-person Illinois Care Days are held quarterly — four times a year, about once every three months — with each date announced once scheduled. Nothing is bookable for a Care Day until a date exists.
Limits: No Care Day date is currently scheduled, and there is no daily Illinois office.
When is the next Illinois Care Day?
Care Days are held four times a year, roughly quarterly. Exact dates are announced as they are scheduled — there is no bookable date today.
Illinois virtual care does not wait for a Care Day; it is available now. Ask to be told when dates are published if in-person care is what you need.
Limits: We never imply a Care Day appointment exists before one is scheduled.
Is the family membership available in my state?
Yes. Whole Family Virtual Care operates nationwide across all 50 states, including Alaska and Hawaii.
That coverage belongs to the network membership. Presence clinician-led care is a separate thing, limited to the states where our provider is licensed.
Limits: Nationwide coverage never implies nationwide Presence in-person or DPC availability.
Full detail: national family virtual care · See Whole Family Virtual Care
The nearest clinic is an hour away. Does virtual care help?
Considerably. Most of what forces the drive — the assessment, the refill, the result review, the order for testing — can happen without it.
Labs and imaging can be ordered at a facility near you at member pricing, and prescriptions sent to your local pharmacy. What still requires the drive is any examination or procedure, and you will be told that early.
Limits: Distance makes red flags more important, not less: severe symptoms need the nearest emergency department.
Can I use this while travelling?
It depends where you physically are. Licensure follows your location, so Presence care applies where our provider is licensed; the Whole Family network covers all 50 states.
Outside the United States, neither pathway is a substitute for local care, and prescriptions generally cannot be filled abroad.
Limits: No international care claim; no prescribing into other countries.
Full detail: texas telehealth · See Whole Family Virtual Care
Where can I be seen in person?
In-person care is available in Dallas–Fort Worth, at $99 for a member visit. Illinois in-person care happens on quarterly Care Days, dates to be announced.
Everywhere else is virtual. We would rather state that plainly than let anyone drive to a place that does not exist.
Limits: No daily office outside Dallas–Fort Worth.
Safety, limits and trust
Emergencies, scope, privacy, credentials and how content is reviewed.
Is this an emergency, or can it wait?
Chest pain or pressure, breathing difficulty at rest, one-sided weakness, slurred speech, fainting, a seizure, confusion, severe or sudden abdominal pain, a stiff neck with fever, uncontrolled bleeding or thoughts of self-harm: call 911 or go to the nearest emergency department now.
Do not book any appointment, virtual or otherwise, while one of those is happening. Everything else is a judgement call, and a virtual visit is a reasonable place to make it — a provider can tell you within minutes whether you need to be seen.
Limits: This is general guidance, not a diagnosis. If a symptom frightens you, be assessed in person.
What can telehealth not do?
It cannot examine you with hands or instruments, image you, take blood in the room, stitch, drain, immunise or provide emergency care.
In practice that means no chest auscultation, no ear examination, no abdominal palpation, no biopsy, no procedure and no on-the-spot testing. What it can do is take a proper history, look at what is visible, order testing locally, prescribe where clinically appropriate and tell you exactly when you need to be seen — which is often the most valuable output of the visit.
Limits: Anyone who claims telehealth handles everything is selling, not practising.
What happens if the clinician says my child needs to be seen in person?
You are told where to go and why, early in the visit rather than at the end. Referral is a normal, correct outcome.
Network clinicians escalate to in-person care, a specialist, urgent care or an emergency department when that is clinically necessary. A virtual visit that ends in a clear instruction has done its job.
Limits: Emergency symptoms should bypass any appointment: call 911.
Full detail: national family virtual care · See Whole Family Virtual Care
Who actually provides my care?
Presence care is delivered by licensed providers, including a board-certified Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner. Whole Family network visits are provided by that network's clinicians.
We are precise about this because it matters: our provider is a nurse practitioner, not a physician, and we never describe her otherwise. The two pathways are separate, and each page says which one you are looking at.
Limits: No claim is made about which specific network clinician you will reach.
Can I get mental health care here?
Presence is a primary care service, not a behavioural health practice. We can discuss access, screen, and point you to appropriate care, and we do not prescribe controlled medications.
We would rather refer you well than hold a problem we are not the right service for. If you are in crisis, call or text 988 in the United States, or 911 if you are in immediate danger.
Limits: No crisis service, no controlled substance prescribing, and no claim of behavioural health specialty care.
Can you share records with my other doctor?
Yes, with your authorisation. Visit documentation can be shared with your other clinicians.
Coordination is part of the point of membership care, particularly for older adults with several prescribers. We ask for consent in writing rather than assuming it.
Limits: Records are released only as permitted by law and your authorisation.
Is a virtual visit private?
Visits are conducted privately and your health information is handled under our privacy practices, which are published.
We do not send symptoms, diagnoses, medications or any clinical free text into website analytics. Analytics records which page and which button, never what is wrong with you.
Limits: No unsecured channel should be used for clinical detail; use the visit itself.
Is the health information on this site reviewed?
Pages are written by the Presence care team and are conservative by design. A named clinical reviewer appears only on pages a clinician has actually reviewed — never as decoration.
Our editorial and medical review policy sets out who writes, who reviews, what sources are acceptable, how often pages are re-checked and how corrections are handled.
Limits: Unreviewed pages carry no reviewer byline; general information is not a diagnosis.
Full detail: editorial standards · Editorial and medical review policy
Does software or AI diagnose me?
No. Every clinical decision is made by a licensed human provider.
Intake tools may collect information before a visit, and that is all they do. No diagnosis, treatment or prescription is produced by software here.
Limits: We make no claim of asynchronous or automated diagnosis or treatment.
Is care available in Spanish or other languages?
Ask us before booking. We do not advertise language capability we have not verified for the pathway you would use.
Rather than claim bilingual service generally, we will tell you what is actually available on the pathway you are considering.
Limits: No verified claim of interpreter or bilingual availability is made on the site today.
Can you give vaccinations?
No — vaccines require an in-person administration we do not provide virtually. We can discuss what is recommended and where to get it.
Pharmacies and local clinics handle most adult immunisation, and a provider can tell you which ones apply to you.
Limits: No vaccine administration through virtual care.
What if I am unhappy with my care, or spot an error on this site?
Tell us. Clinical concerns go to the provider; factual errors on the site are corrected and the page's update date changes when the substance does.
Our editorial policy commits to correcting errors rather than quietly rewriting them, and we do not refresh dates on pages whose content has not changed.
Limits: This is not a substitute for reporting a safety concern to a regulator if that is warranted.
If your question is not here
Ask us. We would rather tell you that Presence is the wrong service for your problem than take a booking that cannot help — and if the honest answer is urgent care, a specialist or an emergency department, that is the answer you will get.
Contact us · How we write and review this information · Find the right care in one minute
About this information
Written by the Presence care team for patients considering care with us. Presence care is delivered by licensed providers, including a board-certified Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner — not by a physician, and not by software. Meet your provider.
This page explains how our service works. It is general information, not a diagnosis, and it is not a substitute for an evaluation of your own situation. Whether testing, treatment or a prescription is appropriate is decided during a visit.
If this is an emergency — chest pain, trouble breathing, stroke symptoms, severe bleeding, or thoughts of harming yourself — call 911 or go to the nearest emergency department. See our emergency care notice.
Ready when you are
Same-day virtual visits for ages 13 and older, or $19.99 a month for everyone in your household, day or night.