Our product is available as an app that can be downloaded from the Apple App Store (iOS) and Google Play (Android) under the name “Joey.” You won’t be able to access the product’s core capabilities on our website; please use these links to download the app:

App Store (iOS) download

Google Play (Android) download

Nope! Just download the app and start searching. We prefer transparency. You can view all the Experts, their in-depth profiles, ratings & reviews, prices, and other relevant information without creating an account. If you want to chat with an Expert or book an appointment, then you will need to be logged into your account, for HIPAA privacy and security reasons.

At the moment, you can work with Lactation Consultants, Doulas (Childbirth Doulas and Postpartum Doulas) and Sleep Consultants. We plan to offer many other “Expert Types” in the future within the Maternal & Child Health industry. If there is a certain Expert Type that you want us to prioritize, please let us know at hello@joinjoey.com

At the moment, only Telehealth calls are possible. We plan to facilitate “Home Visits and “In-Office Appointments” soon, where an Expert can come to your home or you can visit the Expert’s office. We use the words “call / appointment / visit / consultation / consult” interchangeably; they mean the same thing in our eyes.

The Inclusivity Filters are included in an attempt to help improve Maternal & Child Health outcomes. Unfortunately, the maternal mortality rate for people identifying as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) is 3-4X worse than Caucasian people. One of the contributing factors to this alarming statistic is that many BIPOC either do not have access to proper care or do not feel comfortable discussing their health information with others in an American healthcare system traditionally dominated by Caucasian people.

“Inclusivity Filters” is our small way to try to help people find practitioners of similar backgrounds in hopes of making people feel more comfortable and more open about their health issues in order to achieve better care outcomes. For example, we believe a black pregnant woman is more likely to feel a closer connection with a black Doula and hopefully that closer connection results in a more satisfying relationship with improved care outcomes. Perhaps that is too simplistic of an approach, but we are willing to give it a try. If our Inclusivity Filters can help prevent just 1 BIPOC person to avoid becoming another tragic maternal mortality victim, then it’s all been worth the effort.

Yes! To help you find an Expert who speaks your language, please use the “Language” filter in the search results. We currently list 25 different languages as filter options. Soon, we will offer a “keyword search tool” so that you can search for a language that an Expert might list in their profile, but we don’t currently have as a language filter option, such as “Serbian.”

Yes! Finding the right Expert that is best FOR YOU is very important. While we try to provide enough information in the Expert’s in-depth profile to help you make up your mind, we don’t always list all the questions that you might care about. So, we include a free, chat tool (located next to the Expert’s picture at the top of their profile) where you can start a conversation with the Expert.

• Maybe you want to ask them if they are an “in-network” provider with a certain health insurance company?
• Or perhaps they list weekend or night-time availability and you just want to confirm that the information is accurate?
• Maybe you want further clarification about their working style to ensure they would be a good fit for you?
  
  

Whatever the case might be, we want you to get the answers you need so that you can feel confident in your decision to book an appointment with that particular Expert. All chats / messages are private, secure, and fully HIPAA-compliant

HIPAA stands for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). This law required the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to adopt national standards for electronic health care transactions which includes rules surrounding data privacy and security. The law was intended to protect the Private Health Information (PHI) of patients who use the US healthcare system. This government website helps you better understand your rights under HIPAA. While not all services offered through Joey are considered healthcare transactions under the laws of HIPAA, we are still implementing HIPAA throughout our platform, in all areas, to ensure high standards of encryption, data privacy, and security. By operating in a HIPAA-compliant way, you can be sure that your data is private and secure.

First of all, Joey is HIPAA-compliant. We take your privacy and data security very seriously! Every message and consultation is fully-encrypted. We do not share your private health information (PHI) with anyone without your permission. The only people that can view your health information are the Experts that you have chosen to communicate with. Not even Joey staff who maintain this technology platform will be able to view your private health information (PHI).

If the telehealth call is slow or is distorted / scrambled, you can hang-up the call and then attempt to re-enter the call using the same “Join Call” appointment link as before. If you are still having issues, you can try to turn your WIFI off and then back on again. If you are not attempting to get reimbursed by a health insurer for the telehealth call, you can also turn off your camera to help achieve a more stable connection. Most health insurers require a “video” call in order to be reimbursed (a phone call is not enough), so we require all cameras to be turned “on” when initiating a telehealth call.

If you are still having connectivity issues and can’t complete the call in a satisfactory manner, you can ask the Expert to “cancel” the appointment and receive a full refund.

Whenever possible, ensure you are connecting to the Internet in the most stable and fastest method possible. WIFI is almost always more stable than a cellular signal, such as 4G or 5G. Wired (ethernet) network is usually faster and more stable than a wireless signal using a router. If you are using dial-up internet instead of high-speed internet, then you likely won’t be able to complete a telehealth video call in an adequate manner. A high-speed signal is a prerequisite to having a satisfactory telehealth call.

In order to send a message to an Expert or to book an appointment, you must have a user account AND be logged into the app. Since you might be sharing Private Health Information (PHI) in a chat message, we need to ensure that all communications are indeed private and secure, due to HIPAA regulations. We can’t ensure that without you having an account and being logged into the app.

The same thing applies for telehealth consultations. All telehealth consultations must be conducted inside the app to ensure that they are private & secure. In order for us to properly save your appointment information, store your health questionnaire answers, provide a copy of your “Care Plan” created in partnership with your Expert, and even to store your final receipt, we need to do all of this within your user account. Requiring users to be logged into their account in order to make an appointment helps simplify these logistics.

If you have scheduled an appointment, you will receive an email confirmation with the date and time for your appointment. Please add the appointment details to your calendar to remind you about your upcoming appointment.

About 15 minutes before the appointment start time, please log-in to your account. You are required to log-in to your account to conduct the telehealth call for HIPAA security and data privacy reasons. Once you have logged in to your account, please navigate to the “Appointments” section. There will be an “Upcoming Appointments” area which lists all of your scheduled, upcoming appointments.

Your particular appointment will have a “Join Call” button that can be selected only within 5 minutes of the appointment start time. If you click that button, you will be placed into the Waiting Room until the Expert has joined the call. The consultation begins automatically once both parties enter the Waiting Room.

If you are doing an “on-demand” appointment, you will be automatically placed into the “Waiting Room” once you have filled out the necessary paperwork. The telehealth call will start once the Expert joins the Waiting Room too.

After successfully scheduling an appointment, you will need to complete the “Client Intake Forms” before the consultation can start. If the “Client Intake Forms” are not submitted in advance of the call, you will not be able to select the “Join Call” button.

The “Client Intake Forms” consist of 3 legal and health-related forms.
Form 1: A “HIPAA Acknowledgement Form” to be signed acknowledging that you have read our HIPAA policies.
Form 2: A “Consent for Services Form” to be signed acknowledging that you are requesting a certain type of consultation and what tasks might be required from you in order to successfully complete that consultation.
Form 3: A “Health Questionnaire Form” that will gather relevant, basic health information that the Expert needs in order to help assess your current situation/circumstances. The more thorough you answer this questionnaire, the more productive the actual consultation is likely to be.

If you are doing a telehealth call, we recommend finding a quiet, well-lit, comfortable place to conduct the call. If you have a reclining chair / recliner, that’s usually a great, relaxing option. Ensure that there is a strong WIFI connection, wherever you are.

Everyone’s circumstances and backgrounds are different. In order for Experts to give the best guidance, they need to fully understand your (and when applicable, your child’s) situation to be able to tailor their advice to your individual needs. That advice could be different depending on your current circumstances and/or your past health history. The benefit of filling out a health questionnaire is that Experts won’t need to spend a lot of time during your consultation gathering this information. The consultation can be much more productive (and personalized) if the health questionnaire has been fully completed before the appointment starts.

Yes, it really is “on-demand.” If you have ever used a ride-sharing app before like Uber or Lyft, you will see that our “on-demand” consultations operate in a similar way. If an Expert has some free-time (perhaps they just finished a shift at the hospital), they can set their status as “available.” Since this is a new concept in the healthcare world, we’ll explain how it works in further detail below:

After you tell us what type of Expert you’d like to speak with (for example, a Lactation Consultant), you will be prompted for WHEN you want to have a consultation. If you select, “Now” then we will let you know which Experts are available right now for a telehealth consultation. All Experts must have at least 75 minutes of availability or else we won’t consider them as “Available Now.” So, don’t worry about not getting the proper attention you might need.

Once you select the Expert you want to speak with, you will fill out a basic health questionnaire and 2 consent forms, before the consultation begins. We will ask you to estimate how long the consult will likely last, but this is only an estimate, so don’t worry about selecting too short (or too long) of a timeframe. We’ll finalize everything at the end and make any necessary adjustments then too.

While you are filling out the health questionnaire, the Expert will be notified, behind-the-scenes, that a consultation is about to start and they should get prepared. Once you submit your questionnaire, you will be placed into the Waiting Room while the Expert can quickly review the answers to the health questionnaire. By filling out the questionnaire thoroughly, in advance, the consultation can be more productive. As soon as the Expert joins the Waiting Room, we will initiate the consultation.

It’s that easy! You’ll be thinking, “Why hasn’t anyone built this before?!” We wonder the same thing…

No, Experts are all independent practitioners that use Joey’s technology platform to help manage their own private practice. We love supporting small businesses. All communications, consultations, and services that Experts provide are being conducted independently from Joey.

Great question! An IBCLC stands for International Board Certified Lactation Consultant. This is a type of certification signaling that this person is an expert in understanding lactation. IBCLCs are considered the “gold-standard” when it comes to knowledge and training in lactation support. The IBCLC certificate is the only certification type that requires real-world, clinical experience. Usually, to work in a hospital setting, a lactation consultant would need to have the IBCLC certification.

Due to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), lactation support is fully-covered by most commercial health insurance plans! YAY! But, the health insurer can decide what minimum certification level they require from all providers/practitioners that are providing lactation support consultations. This minimum certification level (in the health insurer’s eyes) is to ensure that there is a high-quality standard of care in place to protect the safety of their members / patients. Therefore, most health insurers have decided to only work with (and pay for) lactation consultations that are overseen by a Lactation Consultant that has the IBCLC certification.

What does this all mean in the end? If you want to get reimbursed by your health insurer for a lactation consultation, then make sure that the Lactation Consultant you work with has the IBCLC certificate. If you work with a Lactation Consultant without that IBCLC certificate, the health insurer is more likely to deny your reimbursement claim. Joey lists what certifications each Expert has on their profile, including the IBCLC certificate. We also recommend chatting with that Expert to confirm that the Expert’s IBCLC certificate is in good-standing because you wish to submit a reimbursement claim to your health insurer. Also, tell the Lactation Consultant that you want a “Superbill” after the consultation finishes so you can submit that “Superbill” as evidence of your consultation to the health insurer. The health insurer will require a copy of the “Superbill” in order to reimburse you.

We currently accept all major credit and debit cards, including Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, and Diner’s Club. We also work with HSA/FSA payment cards too to give you even further savings.

Soon, we will accept digital wallets like Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Microsoft Pay.

Most Experts charge a different fee for different appointment lengths. While we ask you to estimate how long of an appointment you likely need (e.g. a 60 minute appointment), we want to ensure we are not over-charging you if the call was actually for a shorter length. So, after every consultation is complete, we ask the Expert to confirm the actual length of the call before we finalize the bill. Any appointments that have been finished, but where the bill has not been finalized yet by the Expert, appear in the Appointments tab of the app underneath the heading, “Awaiting Finalization.” This extra step means that your receipt / final bill is usually not available immediately after the consultation ends. It can take up to 24 hours to finalize the bill. Once the bill is finalized, we will notify you, by email, that the receipt is available to be viewed / downloaded within your account. We do not email you a copy of the receipt because email is not considered a HIPAA-compliant communication method and we value your privacy and data security deeply.

If you have any questions about your final bill or wish to dispute a charge, please contact us within the Joey app. We do not recommend emailing us because that is not a HIPAA-compliant communication channel.

Some services MIGHT be covered through your health insurer, but most services are not. Insurance is unfortunately complicated in the “Maternal & Child Health” world. Typically, Doula and Sleep Consulting services are not covered under health insurance. For Lactation Consultations, most commercial health insurers are required by law to fully-cover lactation consultations, free of charge, if they are conducted by a Lactation Consultant with an IBCLC (International Board Certified Lactation Consultant) certification. If using your health insurance coverage is important to you, we recommend chatting with your Expert, in advance of booking a consultation, to see if they accept your health insurance. Since all Experts are independent practitioners, they choose which health insurers to work with. Please read this article to learn more about insurance coverage for lactation consultations.

We have plans to integrate health insurance into our platform soon to process reimbursement claims and simplify everything for you.

Immediately dial 911 on your telephone to call for emergency assistance. Joey is not a solution for medical emergencies.

If you must cancel your appointment, we ask that you make the Expert aware of your change of plans as soon as possible so that the Expert can open the time slot for another person to book an appointment. Here are our cancellation policies:

• Early Cancellations: If you cancel your appointment with at least 24 hours notice, you will not be charged a cancellation fee.
• Cancellations / “No-Shows” for Appointments Booked 24+ Hours in Advance: If you do not show up for (or cancel) your scheduled appointment that was booked at least 24 hours in advance, you will be charged a “no-show” fee of $50.
  – Last-Minute Cancellations: If you cancel your appointment within 2 hours of its start time (having booked the appointment at least 24 hours in advance), it will be treated as if it was a “no-show” and you will be charged a $50 fee.
  – Late Cancellations: If you cancel your appointment between 2-24 hours before its start time (having booked the appointment at least 24 hours in advance of the appointment start time), you will be charged a late cancellation fee of $30
• Close Proximity Appointment Cancellations / “No Shows”:
  – Within 24 Hours: If you schedule an appointment to be conducted within the next 24 hours and then cancel that appointment at least 8 hours ahead of the appointment start time, you will be charged 50% of the Expert’s estimated fee, or $50, whichever amount is greater. 
  – Within 8 Hours: If you scheduled the appointment within 8 hours of the appointment start time and then cancel that appointment (or don’t show up for that appointment), then you will be charged 100% of the Expert’s estimated fee.

On-Time Responsibility: You are responsible for showing up on-time for your appointment. The Expert is under no obligation to stay longer than the appointment’s scheduled end-time. Experts likely have a packed schedule and would be cutting into another client’s appointment if they stay past the appointment’s scheduled end-time.

After 15 minutes have passed since the appointment’s start time, the Expert is under no obligation to wait inside the “Waiting Room” any longer and may now consider the appointment as a “No-Show”.

If technical difficulties caused a late arrival, you may ask the Expert if they would be willing to stay longer to make up for lost time, but the Expert is under no obligation to do so if their schedule doesn’t allow for it.

At this time, we only allow refunds in rare circumstances. If an Expert has acted in a fraudulent manner or breaks our Code of Conduct, you may request a refund. If our technology platform was experiencing technical difficulties and you were not able to complete a telehealth consultation in an adequate manner, we will also issue a refund. In almost all other circumstances, we are not processing refunds. It is rare that service providers in the healthcare space will issue refunds and we must follow the industry standards.

If you have a general question that does not involve discussing Private Health Information (PHI) or is not about a past or upcoming appointment, you may email us at hello@joinjoey.com.

If you have a question that involves Private Health Information (PHI), which includes past or upcoming appointments, please contact us through the Joey app instead. Email is not considered a HIPAA-compliant communication method and in order to fully protect your privacy and data security, all sensitive communication should be conducted within the app through our secure, communication channels.