Advocate MD Direct Primary Care

09/24/2025

What makes Advocate MD great is our wonderful staff, including our PCTs
We will be showcasing some of the invaluable members of our team:
Meet Josie: Patient Care Technician

4 Questions to help you get to know Josie:
1. Hometown? Rice Lake, WI
2. What she likes to do in her spare time- taking long walks and reading
3. Fun Fact- her family has season tickets to the GREEN BAY PACKERS!
4. What do you like most about working at Advocate MD?
"I love being able to build lasting connections with the physicians, coworkers, and the patients I work with. Also, I enjoy that I get to continually learn new skills and keep growing into the best person I can be. I am incredibly thankful that I have the opportunity to work at such a great place every single day."

Josie- we appreciate all your hard work as part of the Advocate MD team! We are so lucky to have you!

09/16/2025

What makes Advocate MD great is our wonderful staff, including our PCTs
We will be showcasing some of our invaluable members of our staff:

Meet Emily: Patient Care Technician?
4 Questions to help you get to know Emily:

1. Hometown? Waterford, WI

2. What she likes to do in her spare time- sewing, running, and puzzles

3. Fun Fact- she has never broken a bone !

4. What do you like most about working at Advocate MD?

"I really enjoy being able to take the time to get to know patients on a deeper level, which allows us to give more personalized care."

Emily- we appreciate all your hard work as part of the Advocate MD team!

09/12/2025

Not trying to promote this health plan, which I know nothing about. But I think every single one of us has experienced the frustrations of health insurance- being told something is covered and then finding out it is not, surprise medical bills, lack of customer service, not being treated as a human being but instead a number.
There is a lack of humanity in healthcare right now. The very place we need humanity the most.
I think much of this trend started with insurance and when the medical industrial complex began to view patients as billing codes and ICD diagnoses, rather than human beings.

This commercial hits home. Unfortunately.

A raw, relatable look at the frustrations millions of American seniors face when navigating the healthcare system, told through vignettes that shine a light ...

09/11/2025

What did Obamacare actually accomplish?

Made health insurance LESS affordable
Gave more Americans the appearance of having access to care, but they actually are underinsured and can't afford to pay out their deductible if something catastrophic happens.

In 2009, the average monthly cost for a family was 350 dollars. It’s now over two-thousand bucks.

I once heard a very wise doc (Chad Savage- Your Choice Direct Primary care ) say - "Insurance was intended to prevent financial calamity. Now insurance IS the financial calamity".
So true , so true.

https://newstalk1130.iheart.com/featured/the-jay-weber-show/content/2025-09-11-expect-another-9-to-10-percent-bump-in-health-insurance-costs/?fbclid=IwY2xjawMvrihleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHpGJsqt7kIsRLyyAPHa7NstPdzZBO00Hg9gSh8CjWvRODQy_1I4e-_8tco74_aem_zqeBTupJdWGXb6YyhwSApg

Obamacare is the TERRIBLE leftist gift that keeps on giving us higher health insurance costs. Remember the $2400 savings promise?

06/09/2025

🗣️ Dr Hemkes had the privilege to do something pretty cool last week.
She was asked by Senator Mary Felzkowski's office(WI Senate President) to participate in a press conference on Healthcare price transparency in Wisconsin. 🏨
https://www.wsaw.com/2025/06/05/legislators-introduce-hospital-price-transparency-legislation/

FULL TESTIMONY-Hello, I am Dr Nicole Hemkes
Owner/Medical Director Advocate MD

We are a direct primary care practice- this means that we offer affordable, transparent pricing on anything we do in our office - including labs, xrays, and medications we dispense
When I think of healthcare, I can't think of any other industry where you commit to having to pay for services - you as asked to sign a document that you will pay for any services, not knowing what these costs will be .

We have seen a shift in our healthcare costs over the past couple decades and our current healthcare environment most patients are underinsured meaning they have high deductible insurance policies and they are responsible for most of their health care costs out of pocket until they hit their deductible.

We not only need this information to be accessible but we need it to be digestible to patients- easy to navigate and understand.

Unfortunately healthcare costs and billing is not simple to understand . Part of this complexity is related insurance billing and a multitude of "negotiated rates" that health systems have with various insurance companies. but also I believe some of the complexities of medical costs are by design so that these charges are kept hidden, intentionally complicated and very difficult for healthcare consumers to understand and navigate.

I remember an experience 1-2 years ago of calling one of our local hospital systems here in southern WI and I had a list of 4-5 specific xrays I wanted the cash price for. I was doing this for our patients to be able to figure out where we could get the most competitive prices. After be transferred to 3-4 different people and multiple calls back and unreturned calls. I was told that they couldn't give me the cash price because they needed to run this through insurance. I explained that they should know what they are charging for this service and I was looking for the cash price, not the insurance price.

I also want to dispel some other misconceptions about healthcare pricing-
For many services performed in the hospital setting the charge/price they are submitting to the patient or the insurance is exponentially higher than their actual cost to perform this service - we see this with radiology, lab services, procedures, medication administration etc. The discrepancy in pricing can be staggering between different hospital system or services provided as inpatient vs outpatient-
Examples - the same lab test costing $4 vs. 400, an MRI costing $600 vs. $6,000, a Surgery costing $5,000vs. $30,000.

Also there is no correlation between what a hospital is charging for a service/procedure and the quality they are delivering. You could have higher prices being charged by a hospital for a particular surgery in which the surgeon is less skilled, or performs less of these surgeries vs at lower price being charged by a facility where the surgeon is highly skilled, performs more of this particular surgery. SO many times you can get more affordable services and also higher quality.

So when we have a cost problem in WI this further exacerbates the access problem we have in healthcare. Patients will avoid going to the doctor, getting necessary medical services because they are scared of the costs. The current experience is that patients do not know the costs of the services they get until months later when they get their explanation of benefits from the insurance.

This needs to change. Patients in Wisconsin deserve better care and they deserve access to information so that they can be educated healthcare consumers.
Thank you

Three Wisconsin legislators have introduced a bill that would eliminate confusion when it comes to health care costs.

02/04/2025

Does the patient experience improve when PE acquires hospital systems?

JAMA says "No", it actually worsens in multiple areas.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2829041

Listen to my latest episode of "Full Scope with Dr Nicole Hemkes" on iheart.
Last week I discussed how the patient experience has changed in the medical world over the past 5, 10, 20 years.

So we spend more on healthcare, we spend more on health insurance, we have improved our technology/facilities, yet patient satisfaction is at an all time low? Why is this.....?

Hear my thoughts on this and more! Give it a listen!
hashtag hashtag hashtag hashtag hashtag

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1248-full-scope-with-dr-nicole-68815691/episode/patient-care-experience-263083213/

Tune in for a Full Scope of current & relevant Direct Care Medical topics with Dr. Nicole Hemkes, Madison, WI’s Direct Care Doctor, 8:30am Thursdays on News/Talk 1310 WIBA!

12/25/2024

We wish you a very Merry Christmas from our Advocate MD family to yours!

11/29/2024

Hoping you have a time of rest and reconnecting with family and friends.

We are very grateful for all of our patients at Advocate MD and the staff and physicians who make our practice extraordinary.

Thank you for your support of Advocate MD.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family 2024!

11/12/2024

🎉 We are soooo excited to announce that Dr Gina DeGiovanni will be joining Advocate MD next month.
Dr DeGiovanni grew up in Prairie du Sac where her father was a surgeon and her mom was a nurse. ⚕ 👨‍⚕️
She attended the prestigious University of Chicago for Undergraduate, Graduate school and Medical school.
After completing Medical school, Dr DeGiovanni did an additional year of surgical training and then went on to complete her Family Medicine residency at West Suburban in Chicago.
Dr DeGiovanni currently lives in Prairie du Sac with her husband and teenage son.
If you are looking for a skilled, empathetic physician who can take time with you and is available when you need them, enroll today and you can select Dr Gina DeGiovanni. 🙂 👩‍⚕️
🙌 Welcome to the Advocate MD Team! 👏

11/05/2024

11/03/2024

Coming closer to the holiday season, we'll provide healthy eating tips and meal ideas!

11/03/2024

🎉 🙌 We are very excited to announce Dr Jennifer Philbin MD will be joining the Advocate MD team in February 2025. 🙂

👩‍⚕️ Dr Philbin is a native Wisconsinite who grew up in Madison. She attended UW-Madison for undergrad, then Medical school at University of Illinois-Chicago, and finally completing her residency at Illinois Masonic in Chicago.
Dr Philbin has been working for the past 12 years in Lake Mills, WI. 🏥
She will add great value to our practice as an experienced, skilled, empathetic physician. ⚕
⭐ Family Physicians are a rare find these days! ⭐
👋 Please help us in welcoming Dr Jennifer Philbin to Advocate MD!🤗