You do not have to take a half-day off work to ask a doctor about a sinus infection. You do not have to sit in a waiting room with a fever. A lot of those visits can happen on a phone or a laptop, from the couch, the same evening.

I'm Dr. Jeffrey Halford. I practice telemedicine across Oklahoma. A visit is $49 flat. Open 9:00am–9:30pm, seven days a week — including Sunday. Licensed in Oklahoma only. You text, we set a video time, you talk to a real physician, and if a prescription is appropriate it goes to the pharmacy you already use.

That convenience is the point. The insurance office visit is often the long way around.

What the visit actually feels like

You are home. Maybe it is 7:30 p.m. and the office you usually call closed at 5. Maybe a teen is on the couch with a cough and you would rather not haul everyone to urgent care. You join a private video visit. I can see how you look, hear the story, review your medicines, and decide whether this is something we can treat from here or whether you need an exam in person.

If it is a sick visit, we talk through symptoms and next steps the same night. If it is a routine refill on a stable medicine, we confirm it is still appropriate and send it in. Follow-up is often a short message. You do not need another afternoon off for that.

There is no waiting room. No commute across Tulsa traffic. No clipboard of insurance cards at a window. The price is the price before you start.

How the mechanics work is in the patient guide. The short version: text (918) 236-7062 with your name and a callback number only, or use the patient portal. Hours run 9:00 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.

Why the insurance visit so often feels like the opposite

A regular office visit is fee-for-service sitting behind an insurance checklist. The clinic bills per visit. The plan then decides whether that visit, test, or medicine "qualifies for payment." That second step is prior authorization. (AMA 2025 Prior Authorization Physician Survey)

It is common. Kaiser Family Foundation polling in July 2025 found that 73% of adults call insurer delays and denials a major problem. Among insured adults, 51% said they or their clinician had to get prior authorization in the past two years. Twenty-nine percent said the insurer delayed or denied a doctor-requested service, treatment, or medication. (KFF Health Tracking Poll, July 2025)

On the clinic side, that paperwork is a job of its own. In the AMA's December 2025 survey, practices completed about 40 prior auths per physician per week, and physicians and staff spent 13 hours a week on them. Ninety-five percent of those physicians said prior authorization delayed care. (AMA 2025 survey PDF) Those are hours that used to be for calling you back.

The calendar is slow too. AMN Healthcare's 2025 survey found a 31-day average wait for a new-patient appointment across 15 large metros, and 23.5 days in family medicine. None of those cities is in Oklahoma, so that is not a Tulsa statistic. It is a picture of how full American primary-care books are. (AMN 2025 survey PDF)

You can also wait, then still pay. KFF's 2025 employer survey put the average single deductible at $1,886 among workers who have one. Thirty-four percent are in a plan with a $2,000-or-more deductible. (KFF EHBS 2025) A $49 video visit is often simpler than using the coverage you already pay for, for the kind of problem that does not need a hospital.

What cash-pay video actually skips

Simply Medicine does not bill your insurance for the visit. No claim means no prior authorization on the visit. No surprise bill three weeks later.

We are not concierge medicine. Direct primary care, as the American Academy of Family Physicians defines it, is often a hefty monthly or annual fee. (AAFP, Direct Primary Care) A visit here is $49 flat. No membership required. You are not buying a $2,000 concierge panel. If you want that contrast spelled out, it is on our doctor access without a membership fee page.

Keep your health insurance for the things a laptop cannot do: the emergency department, the hospital, the ambulance, a lot of imaging and surgery. Cash-pay video is the convenient door for problems telemedicine handles well. It is not catastrophic coverage.

One honest limit: if we send a prescription and you fill it through insurance, the pharmacy plan can still ask for a prior auth on the drug. Paying $49 for the visit does not bind a pharmacy benefit manager. If that happens, we say so and talk through cash pharmacy pricing or another option.

Oklahoma has tried to put clocks on insurance prior auths (72 hours urgent, seven days non-urgent on many state-regulated plans). The federal Medicare and Medicaid clocks are similar. Neither covers most employer plans, and the federal rule does not cover drugs. (HB 3190; CMS-0057-F) A video visit the same evening does not wait on those clocks.

When you should not use video

Call 9-1-1, not a telemedicine inbox, for stroke signs (face, arm, speech, sudden trouble) or a suspected heart attack. Do not drive yourself. (CDC, stroke treatment; NINDS, stroke signs; CDC, heart attack)

The same goes for severe trouble breathing, uncontrolled bleeding, new confusion or loss of consciousness, major trauma, pregnancy emergencies, overdose, and a suicidal or homicidal crisis.

If I need a hands-on exam, I will send you in person. Convenience is not an excuse to skip the right setting.

FAQ

Can I really do this from home at night?
Yes. Hours run 9:00 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., evenings and weekends included. You need a private spot and a phone or laptop that can do video.

Do I need to come to Tulsa?
No. Fully virtual for Oklahoma. Labs, if we order them, are drawn near you. Prescriptions go to your pharmacy.

Will you bill my insurance for the visit?
No. $49 flat per video visit. No claim, no visit prior auth.

Is this a membership?
No. $49 flat per video visit. No membership required.

Should I drop my regular doctor?
No. Use video for the visits that do not need a three-week wait. Keep the relationships that are working.

Does this replace the ER?
No. Stroke, heart-attack symptoms, and the other emergencies above are 9-1-1.

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