As defined by the Institute for Functional Medicine:
”Functional medicine determines how and why illness occurs and restores health by addressing the root causes of disease for each individual.

The functional medicine model is an individualized, patient-centered, science-based approach that empowers patients and practitioners to work together to address the underlying causes of disease and promote optimal wellness. It requires a detailed understanding of each patient’s genetic, biochemical, and lifestyle factors and leverages that data to direct personalized treatment plans that lead to improved patient outcomes.

By addressing root cause, rather than symptoms, practitioners become oriented to identifying the complexity of disease. They may find one condition has many different causes and, likewise, one cause may result in many different conditions. As a result, functional medicine treatment targets the specific manifestations of disease in each individual.”
Learn more from Institute for Functional Medicine’s website.

Unfortunately no, at this time OCC isn’t covered by any health insurance.

OCC can provide you with a “superbill” after individual Functional Medicine appointments with Jessica that you may submit to your health insurer for “out of network” reimbursement. We cannot guarantee that any of the services at OCC will be honored by your insurer as a qualifying service.

At this time OCC is a virtual practice serving our Members via the HIPAA-compliant Zoom platform from the comfort of their home or office in Massachusetts.

Currently Jessica’s licensing limits her to treating people within the state of Massachusetts.

However, we intend to expand our ability to serve people in other states, based on demand. If you live outside of Massachusetts but are interested in becoming a Member, please contact our Office Manager, Nicole, and ask to be placed on our out-of-state waiting list.

Unfortunately, no. Jessica’s licensing currently limits her to treating people within the state of Massachusetts.

However, we intend to expand our ability to serve people in other states, based on demand. If you live outside of Massachusetts but are interested in becoming a Member, please contact our Office Manager, Nicole, and ask to be placed on our out-of-state waiting list.

We are committed to providing care that is logistically accessible for everyone, in all states of health. The pandemic has highlighted the myriad barriers that office visits pose to patients, especially those with limited mobility and complex chronic illness. For this increased accessibility, the fluctuating pandemic landscape, and the ability to serve people across Massachusetts, we are currently an entirely virtual practice.

For former Functional Medicine patients of Jessica Jimison’s, a la carte appointments are available until June 30, 2023.

Otherwise, we do not offer individual appointments for non-members because effective Functional Medicine requires a thorough history, a comprehensive approach — and time.

Our commitment to integrity and our dedication to healing is why Origins Collaborative Care offers memberships rather than fee-for-service appointments. We know out-of-pocket Functional Medicine care is expensive. But, it becomes financially and emotionally devastating when it’s both costly AND ineffective. Offering a single appointment won’t deliver the value you deserve.

However, we do offer appointments to individuals after they have completed a membership with us!

To learn more about why we offer memberships, explore our membership page.

No, we offer highly specialized Functional Medicine care and require all Members to have a Primary Care Provider in order to work with us. OCC is always willing to collaborate with other providers and we appreciate opportunities to support continuity of care amongst providers of various disciplines.

Our patients generally present with an assortment of symptoms or diagnoses in multiple systems including but not limited to:

Allergies | Arthritis |Asthma | Autoimmune Disease(s) | Autonomic Nervous System Dysregulation I Brain Fog |Chronic Fatigue | Chronic/Recurrent Infection (Lyme, EBV, Fungal) | Depression & Anxiety | Detoxification Issues | Digestive Disorders (IBS/IBD, Dysbiosis, Intestinal Permeability) | Eczema/Psoriasis | Environmental and Food Reactions | Fatigue | Fibromyalgia | Heavy Metal Toxicity | Histamine Intolerance | Hormone Imbalance | Hypermobility | Insomnia | Interstitial Cystitis | Mast Cell Activation Syndrome I Mitochondrial Inefficiency | Mold Illness/CIRS | Migraines/Headaches | POTS/Dysautonomia | Pain/Inflammation | Rash | Restless Leg Syndrome | Tinnitus | Vertigo/Dizziness

OCC goes far beyond treating any one of these issues in isolation and instead focuses on treating the Origins of your illness. Our approach works to address the vulnerabilities in your system(s) that allowed these issues to manifest in the first place, restoring your body’s capacity for true, lasting health and vitality!

More detail available on What We Treat.

Yes! Many of our patients have (or had!) chronic pain. Origins Collaborative Care uses neuroplasticity, autonomic nervous system, and specialized Mind-Body interventions to help people deal with, reduce, or eliminate pain syndromes.

Jessica has chosen not to maintain a DEA license because of the research showing that opiates used longer than the acute inflammatory response to injury or surgery actually strengthen the pain pathway rather than improving the sufferer’s life. OCC will have education available to help you understand what pain is, what pain isn’t, what its purpose is, and how to approach it without prescription medication. That said, being on prescription pain medication is not a barrier to becoming a Member at OCC.

YES!

A diagnosis is just a description that classifies a certain constellation of symptoms and gives it a name.

More and more often, however, people find themselves with a grouping of symptoms that don’t seem to fit any recognizable pattern… no one can seem to offer them a diagnosis. But, that doesn't make it any less real for the person who’s suffering without answers.

On the other end of the spectrum, there’s a growing number of people with a long list of diagnoses, but nothing that seems to tie it all together, with no clear path for getting well.

Whether you have a multitude of diagnoses — or none at all — we can help.

Our approach prioritizes identifying and removing your current obstacles to healing combined with evidence-based approaches for harnessing the power of your own built-in mechanisms for healing and repair. Since we believe in your body’s capacity to heal from wherever it is at this time, we do not waste time working on a diagnosis—we start right in on restoring your health from the beginning of your OCC journey.

We know that for a great many of you, due to financial hardship and limitation, the cost of our care feels disheartening, and you may even feel a sense of grief and loss. We understand the cost of our program (no matter how we try to structure it) is exclusionary for many, and we’re feeling the angst of that, too. We ask that you stay tuned and stay connected with us as we grow and develop because we’re deeply committed to offering ongoing education and resources to the public for low cost or free, and we’ll be exploring other opportunities for making our care more widely available in the future, including scholarships and grants.

For now, out-of-pocket healthcare is expensive. Our prices need to reflect the true cost of care in order for our business to be solvent. We're addressing this directly because we want the public to understand how this inequity challenges our value system and how committed we are to finding solutions.

This includes addressing our broken healthcare system. Our goal is to make this kind of care accessible and affordable to absolutely everyone who needs it. It’s imperative that we do our part to address the implicit biases and healthcare disparities that are still so prevalent, so traumatic, so exclusionary and so life-threatening to the BIPOC community, including and especially in Functional Medicine.

OCC schedules appointments and returns phone calls Monday through Thursday 8am-6pm. On Fridays, Jessica, Micaela, and Christene attend to non-clinical aspects of the business.