A Naturopathic DPC Priced at the HSA Cap, by Doctors the Rule Omits

Sonoran University of Health Sciences priced the top tier of its new membership at $150 a month. That’s the exact monthly ceiling in the federal rule that lets a direct primary care membership sit alongside HSA contributions. The family version tops out at $300, the exact family ceiling.

The clinicians on the school’s provider roster are naturopathic physicians and acupuncturists. The federal definition of a primary care practitioner doesn’t name them.

What Sonoran launched

The Tempe, Arizona school announced Natural Pass on Oct. 27 in a release distributed through EIN Presswire. It calls the program “a new tiered membership program designed to make naturopathic healthcare more accessible to Arizonans.” It also uses the DPC label directly: “The Direct Primary Care model shifts care from transactional, appointment-based visits to an ongoing relationship with a trusted care team.”

The membership page lists three 12-month individual plans:

• Healthy Pass, $59 a month: unlimited doctor visits, naturopathic manipulations if eligible, same-day and telehealth appointments
• Wellness Pass, $85 a month: adds unlimited acupuncture and hydrotherapy
• Lifestyle Pass, $150 a month: adds an annual advanced lab panel, hormone testing, waived draw fees, a monthly credit at the university’s Medicinary and discounted IV and injection therapies

Six-month versions cost more, at $65, $95 and $165 a month. Family Wellness and Family Lifestyle plans charge per person, with monthly maximums of $260 and $300. The release says Sonoran is waiving a $150 enrollment fee “for a limited time.” These are the school’s posted prices, and DPC fees vary widely by practice and market.

“We created Natural Pass to provide patients with an experience that goes beyond the sporadic, once-a-year doctor’s office visit,” Dr. Jessica Mitchell, the university’s vice president of clinical affairs, said in the release.

Enrollment runs through software a lot of DPC practices would recognize. The appointment page sends members to a signup form at sonoran.hint.com, a page on Hint Health’s membership platform.

Who does the work

The clinic’s medical team page lists its providers with ND or NMD after their names, the naturopathic credentials, along with acupuncturists. The appointment page describes its telemedicine visits as care from “our naturopathic physicians, residents, and student clinicians.”

That roster is where the federal definition bites. Under IRS Notice 2026-5, a direct primary care service arrangement is care “consisting solely of primary care services provided by primary care practitioners.” The notice borrows that last term from section 1833(x)(2)(A) of the Social Security Act and spells it out. A primary care practitioner is a physician “who has a primary specialty designation of family medicine, internal medicine, geriatric medicine, or pediatric medicine,” or “a nurse practitioner, clinical nurse specialist, or physician assistant.”

Naturopathic physicians are not on that list.

The same definition carries both of the notice’s HSA answers. It decides whether a membership can sit alongside HSA contributions, up to $150 a month for one person or $300 for an arrangement covering more than one. In A-20, the notice repeats the wording to decide whether an HSA can reimburse the fee as a medical expense.

Sonoran hasn’t claimed either treatment. Neither the release nor the membership page says Natural Pass qualifies under the 2026 HSA rules, and the release doesn’t mention HSAs at all. The clinic’s payment page says it takes HSA and FSA cards for “select services only,” without listing which.

A price at the cap is one test of several

Sonoran’s materials don’t explain why the Lifestyle tiers land where they do. Whatever the reason, the dollar limit settles only the price.

The notice stacks other conditions on top of it. The fixed periodic fee has to be the sole compensation for the care. And three things fall outside “primary care services” entirely: procedures that require general anesthesia, prescription drugs other than vaccines and laboratory services not typically administered in an ambulatory primary care setting.

If you run a family medicine DPC, your credential is on that federal list. A label in a press release doesn’t add anyone to it.

The six-month Lifestyle Pass, at $165 a month, sits above the notice’s $150 limit for one person, whoever delivers the care.