Northwest Fire District is dedicated to our mission to “save lives, protect property and care for our community”. The Family Care Center supports the mission by caring for our members and their families by providing easily accessible, high quality, low-cost comprehensive healthcare aimed at improving patient experience.

Anyone that is covered by the NWFD’s medical insurance plan.  This includes employees, retirees, and any dependent on the NWFD medical insurance plan.

No, you are not required to use the FCC.  We feel that having a District clinic for our members, retirees, and families will provide better access to high-quality care, but you are not obligated to change from your current provider.

No, we currently do not accept any insurance other than the plan NWFD provides, nor do we accept self-pay.

The Family Care Center (FCC) was designed to provide primary care for those who are insured on the NWFD medical insurance plan and are over the age of 12.  Scope of services include but are not limited to:

Healthcare services:

• Preventative Care
  • Women’s Health, Men’s Health, Well-Child Care age ≥ 12
• Acute care visits (sick visits for all age groups)
• Chronic disease management
• Illness prevention and education
• Minor procedures
• Sports physicals

Diagnostic labs on-site:

• Urinalysis, by dipstick
• Blood sugar
• Examination of stool specimens for occult blood
• Pregnancy testing (urine)
• Primary culturing for transmittal to reference lab
• Group A strep – rapid test
• Rapid COVID-19 testing
• Rapid Influenza A/B testing

Though we treat all age groups, we prefer that those under the age of 12 stay with their pediatrician for their primary care.  Pediatricians are specialty trained to monitor physical, emotional, and social development of children and have expertise in diagnosis and treatment of childhood illnesses and disease.  The FCC will see children of any age for sick visits or injuries if you are unable to schedule a timely appointment with your child’s pediatrician.

No, the FCC does not perform occupational health services.  We are a primary care provider.  You must follow District policy for all Occupational Health related issues.

Office visits are $20 until you meet your annual deductible.  After that your insurance will pay 100% of your visit charge.  Your annual physical is free of charge to you, even if you have not yet met your deductible.

If you require injectable medication, there will be a $10 flat fee for each.  Any medications dispensed from the clinic are included in your office visit charge.

The insurance offered to our members and their families is a self-funded insurance plan.  This means that whatever portion of your healthcare that is “covered by insurance” is billed to NWFD.  Last year the claims NWFD paid for primary care visits was in the ballpark of $1.5 million.

With some creative thinking, we recognized that employing a primary care provider would not only be beneficial to our members, but financially advantageous to the organization.  In employing our own provider, we could better negotiate rates for services with our healthcare plan; therefore, lowering the costs to our members.

We would love it to be free; however, IRS guidelines require that those members of a high deductible health plan (HDHP) with a health savings account (HSA) are not allowed to receive discounted healthcare services prior to meeting their deductible.  Violation of this can result in an audit of the plan holder (you).  The only exception to this is preventative care, i.e., annual physical.

To abide by those guidelines, we have negotiated a fair price for services.  The amount you pay at the FCC is not a discounted rate, it is the full price negotiated rate.  This keeps us aligned with IRS guidelines and does not jeopardize our HSA eligibility.  

Yes, we will bill the visit through your insurance just as they do at any other provider’s office so it will be applied to your deductible.

Yes, we accept any credit card for payment, including your HSA card.  You can put your card on file in your patient portal to make this easy for you if you wish to do so.  We do not accept cash or check payment.

Yes.  The state of Arizona is a full-practice state for nurse practitioners.  This allows the nurse practitioner to assess, diagnose, treat, prescribe, and dispense if necessary.

Absolutely not.  Though the Family Care Center is a division of the District, it has been configured as its own entity.  It has its own procedure manual, and the electronic health record is only accessible by those working at the FCC.