I am Jacqueline "Jacqui" Rodgers, I was born and raised in Albuquerque, NM. I am a family nurse practitioner. I obtained both my undergraduate and graduate degrees from Chamberlain University in Jacksonville, FL and I am currently working toward doctoral degree in Naprapathy at Southwest University of Naprapathic Medicine.
By night I am a wife, step-mom, fur-mom, daughter, sister and BEST auntie (shh. . don't tell my sisters)!
Reform ABQ is a direct primary care clinic located in the heart of Albuquerque. I founded Reform ABQ in March 2020, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic I postponed our opening as I was helping our community with that battle.
What is direct primary care?
Direct primary care is a newer model of primary care that places the emphasis back in the patient-provider relationship. We do not accept any insurance, and as a result we save our patients time and money.
Opting out of third-party insurance has allowed us to contract directly with pharmacies and diagnostic companies and provide our patients at cost pricing. This direct contracting has also allowed us to stock some common medications in-house and we are able to draw labs in-house for added convivence.
What ages and conditions do you treat?
As a family nurse practitioner, I can treat all ages and provide up to 90% of care in this model. We treat common everyday problems like colds, rashes, minor injuries, as well as chronic conditions like hypertension, diabetes, etc.
What is your recommendation for health insurance?
Our recommendation for insurance is to have a high deductible plan that way you are covered for hospitalizations, surgeries and even cancer care. But we really must get into the mindset of treating our health insurance like we do car insurance. We use it for catastrophic care because when it’s used for primary care it drives up costs because there is a third party involved. Primary care is preventative and is what all people should have access to as it’s the only way to prevent chronic illness and hospitalizations later.
We can still bill insurance for diagnostic testing, labs and medication that are picked up at the pharmacy we just remove it from the primary care experience.
What got you into this?
During my clinical rotations I quickly realized that primary care providers are unable to provide primary care. I remember vividly being shown the dark hallway with three exam rooms, the office I would be in with the provider (with ZERO windows) and the schedule of 29 patients we had that day. I thought to myself, “What did you get yourself into?” The patient population served had many chronic illnesses and how could I possibly see 25-30 patients a day?
The answer is you can’t! You can’t provide quality health care in 15 minutes.
It’s important for me to teach my patients and our community how to take care of their health. Because health problems, even minor ones, can interfere with all aspects of your life and even decrease your life expectancy.
Through your experience seeing patients, what have you noticed are the biggest struggles many people experience?
I feel the biggest struggle we have as a nation is our overall perception on health. It’s astounding to hear what people’s perception of “health” is. For example, a 25-year-old who weighs 200lbs and is 5ft 5inches, eats’ only one serving of fruits and vegetables a day and drives through a Starbucks line for a Venti caramel macchiato once a day is flabbergasted to know that they are obese with hypertension and is a pre-diabetic.
It’s also evident in our pediatric population as well. We currently have a childhood obesity rate of nearly 20 percent in the United States. We are setting our future generation up for poorer health outcomes.
What’s the cost for a direct primary care membership?
For a monthly fee starting at $55 per month for adults and $30 per month for children, patients get unlimited visits, telehealth, 1-hour appointment times, no added co-pays, same-day and next day appointments and direct access to me via text, email, and phone 7-days a week.
At Reform ABQ we believe that health care should be affordable, accessible and personalized. To learn more or to schedule a free consultation click the link below: