No. We do not accept payments from any insurance plans for the actual provider visit portion. You may still use your insurance for labs, pap, imaging, and prescription benefits. For regular visits, a "superbill" can be provided for you to submit to your insurance plan for possible out-of-network reimbursement. Superbills cannot be generated for membership fees. This is a private, transparent fee-for-service and membership hybrid medical office with direct care in a small personalized practice setting. The benefits here include quality time spent directly with your provider, timely access, and improved communication. Larger practices bound by insurance rules and reimbursement depend on large volumes and thus tend to rush patients in and out, have long waits, unhelpful automated systems, and typically will not allow any problems to be addressed at the time of annual preventative visits. Our model allows for a much smaller volume of patients to be seen in a day, providing new patients with 60 minute thorough visits.

Yes. We offer a membership model for initial and active/ongoing hormone and weight management, directly with Dr. Ward. There is an initial 6 month minimum enrollment, and then the unique ability here to transition out for fee-for-service longer term maintenance care.For general gynecology, we continue to offer our fee-for-service pathway.

Not necessarily. Established patients who are stable on their current treatment may continue with individually billed, fee-for-service follow-up visits. Please note that hormone therapy and weight management will require separate follow-up appointments.If you started HRT or GLP-1 treatment within the past six months, we strongly recommend CWW Signature Care to provide the closer monitoring, medication adjustments, and ongoing support often needed during the early stages of treatment. Established patients may enroll with only a three-month minimum commitment.Important considerations for fee-for-service care: Appointment availability with Dr. Ward beginning in 2027 is significantly more limited for FFS than Signature Care member follow-up access. Follow-up must be scheduled in advance to ensure no interruption to treatment. Questions about medication adjustments, side effects, persistent symptoms, or treatment reassessment require scheduled appointments and are not managed through routine portal messages or phone calls if not a member.

Yes. Generally new HRT starts should be done through membership initially. Kim provides routine menopause care, including standard estrogen and progesterone therapy when appropriate, through our fee-for-service model. She may also continue existing testosterone or compounded hormone prescriptions following an appropriate medical evaluation, but typically does not initiate new testosterone or custom compounded hormone regimens. Kim can also manage PCOS/PMOS and PMDD.Patients more appropriate for CWW Signature Care, Dr. Ward’s physician-led membership program:·       Most new hormone therapy starts ·       Perimenopause with unique and changing symptoms·       Desire for comprehensive lab review·       Transitioning from pellet therapy with adverse or inadequate effect·       Desire to start or change testosterone or custom compounded hormone preparations·       Complex midlife symptom management that may have underlying causes outside of ovarian hormone decline alone·       Over age 65 with risk factors·       Personal history of breast cancer·       Personal history of stroke, heart disease, or blood clots (DVT/PE)·       PCOS/PMOS with metabolic dysfunction, need for active weight management·       Value ongoing direct provider accessCare can be initiated and adjusted through Signature Care and then followed long-term on a fee-for-service pathway by either Dr. Ward or Kim once stable.Please note: Fee-for-service hormone management requires scheduled follow-up visits for medication adjustments, side effects, and treatment reassessment. These services are not provided through routine portal messages or phone calls.

The Elation "Passport" patient portal is a convenient way to communicate with our office about many routine needs. If enrolled in our membership, the portal can be utilized at any time to communicate clinical concerns and needs directly to the physician as well as everything on the list below.If only being seen for fee-for-service needs at our office, the portal can be used for the following:Viewing test results, visit summaries, and care plansself-scheduling, cancel/reschedule appointmentclarifying instructions from a recent visitrequesting to initiate an option presented in a plan made at a recent visitsending outside records, lab results, or imaging reports for your provider to have before an upcoming visitrequesting an update to your pharmacy, insurance, or demographic information

Dr. Ward is separately board-certified in obesity medicine and has extensive knowledge about several weight loss medications, nutrition, exercise, and the ability to co-manage these along with menopausal hormone therapy. Any patient interested in initiating a weight loss medication such as a GLP-1 based therapy, will need to enter through the CWW Signature Care enrollment, at least for the initial 6 months. This care involves a detailed weight & metabolic health history, assessment of candidacy for weight loss medication, prior authorization completion if indicated, further specialist referrals as needed, baseline and ongoing lab review, and body composition scans. This is available to any female of any body weight seeking metabolic health assessment and strategic planning, not just those who wish to pursue GLP-1 medication.All follow-up is done in the telemedicine format. Body scans and blood draws are offered in person in the office. If you are located in a different part of Florida and cannot make it to the office in person, InBody scan locations can be found at multiple sites and a home model is available for personal use. Lab orders can be sent to various Quest or Labcorp locations.Consider this an investment early on into one of the most profound health parameters you can target, and take comfort knowing that long term management can be accomplished in a low-maintenance fashion without a never-ending membership subscription.

The gyn "annual" exam includes a breast and pelvic screening exam, pap screening when indicated, and order and review of mammogram. The screening exam is recommended annually regardless of whether the pap is due that year. If a woman chooses to decline a pelvic exam based on personal preferences, please note that an annual preventative female wellness visit is still recommended as there is much to review beyond the pelvic exam itself. Under age 21, breast and pelvic exams are typically only done as indicated on an individual basis. The pap is only one small part of the women's annual visit, and it is specifically a test to detect cervical cancer. It is recommended at 3-5 year intervals starting at age 21, depending on individual history and prior results. Between ages 21-24 minor abnormalities can usually be monitored conservatively due to a high rate of spontaneous regression. Before age 30, human papilloma virus (HPV) testing is done reflexively only for abnormal cells. After age 30, HPV co-testing is recommended. After age 65 or after a hysterectomy where the cervix was removed and no previous precancer found, the routine screening pap may be discontinued. In that case, the screening exam is still recommended - for evaluation of the vulva, vagina, and ovaries as applicable. Mammogram is recommended annually after age 40. This is an imaging study with a high sensitivity in detecting small cancers of the breast before they would be palpable. It is done in addition to the clinical breast exam.

Payment is collected via Elation patient payments, through which you may use credit card, debit card, ACH bank transfer, HSA/FSA cards, and Google pay. Elation Patient Payments is powered by Stripe. Stripe is a secure, digital, payment processing platform that is Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliant and utilizes best-in-class security tools to maintain a high level of security. Any information you enter during the payment process is securely encrypted. As of Jan 1, 2026, there will be no credit card surcharges, but we no longer accept cash or Care Credit.

By not contracting with insurance companies who provide variable coverage for healthcare services leading to delayed surprise bills for patients, we are able to provide clear transparent fees that are fully disclosed in advance and processed at the time of service.As of Jan 1, 2026 we now require patients to have a form of payment recorded on file. This serves several purposes:Eliminates credit card surcharges to patientsStreamlines the check in and check out processAllows for any add-on services chosen to be processed seamlessly and with clear itemized receiptsMaximizes patient access to appointments by reducing the amount of "no-show" and last minute cancellations Unfortunately, no-show and last minute cancellations have become a considerable burden over time. We have a waitlist of patients wanting to get in. Failure to keep scheduled visits prevents patients who actually wish to be seen from having that opportunity. It also creates an unsustainable financial model for continued care in this setting.Please be reassured:No charges are incurred until services are rendered provided there is no late cancellation or “no show” Patients may request to change the card on file at any timeYou may choose ACH bank transfer as an alternative to credit or debit cardYou will be given a notification 24 hrs prior to any charge processingMultiple appointment reminders are sent out in advance, eliminating the risk of patients not being aware they had an appointment scheduled*Late cancellation is defined as within 48 hours of appointment start time. No show and late cancellation fees are $50.

Yes, but it depends on the specific medication.In fact, many well-established medications are peptides or peptide-based therapies. These include medications such as insulin, GLP-1 GIP and glucagon-based therapies, teriparatide, and leuprolide, among others.  We prescribe peptide-based medications when there is sufficient clinical evidence to support their safety and effectiveness for the condition being treated, and when the condition itself is within our scope of practice. What is often marketed today as “peptide therapy,” however, generally refers to a different group of experimental compounds promoted for anti-aging, healing, muscle growth, performance or longevity. Many of these have little or no high-quality human clinical evidence establishing safety or effectiveness. We understand that these therapies are increasingly available through wellness clinics and compounding pharmacies. However, the ability to purchase or compound a medication does not mean that it has been FDA-approved, clinically proven to work, or established as safe.Our practice follows emerging research and remains open to new therapies as evidence develops. We do not recommend a treatment based solely on promising laboratory or animal research, anecdotal results, or its popularity in the wellness industry. If adequate evidence supports the use of a particular peptide therapy in the future, our recommendations will evolve along with the science.