This web site formerly hosted the innovative, integrative psychiatry – functional medicine practice, Allied Psychophysiology. Allied Psychophysiology operated for over a decade as a pioneering advanced nursing practice in beautiful Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, providing top quality care with significantly better patient outcomes than the typical rushed pharmaceutical-centric medical practices.
Founded in 2005 by Lee Porter, MSN, NP-PP, CNS-PP, Allied Psychophysiology was the first advanced nurse healthcare clinical practice in North Carolina. In the process, he advanced state policies for credentialing nurse owned and managed healthcare practices. involved access to care and reimbursement by third party healthcare payers, including Blue Cross, Tricare, and other major insurers in NC. The regional Veterans Administration hospitals relied on the practice as a trusted regional referral for treatment of brain injury (TBI) and PTSD for wounded military personnel. He also was sought and provided regional assessments and care for patients referred from the Duke University Hospital organ transplant program.
Policies constraining independence of advanced nurse practice, national policies blocking coverage for non-pharmaceutical treatments like biofeedback, and stigmatizing mental healthcare by reducing reimbursements for providers, results in limiting access to healthcare for patients.
Allied Psych and the work of Lee Porter helped shape Medicare policies, both regional (J11) and national, related to advanced practice nurses, mental health parity, and reimbursement for biofeedback. The innovative work at Allied Psych, with clinical data collected, which showed positive patient outcomes, helped establish policy precedent for reimbursement of procedures integrating time intensive biofeedback training, and innovative use of medical telemetry to improve patient treatment and care.
Lee Porter and the team at Allied Psych advocated for fair reimbursement, parity with medication management, of evidence based non-pharmaceutical treatments for chronic pain and chronic conditions.
Parity in healthcare, allowing for full independent practice to their training for advanced practice nurses, ensuring full mental health treatment and reimbursement parity to “medicalized” disorders, and promoting the use of nonpharmaceutical interventions, when evidence warrants, leads to improved access to care and better health outcomes.
Lee Porter, MSN, NP-PP, CNS-PP is currently licensed in Oregon and Washington. He continues work in both patient care and patient advocacy, still seeking justice and parity on these healthcare policy issues.
