Policies & Procedures

Clinic Hours

We are open Monday through Friday 8:30am – 12:00pm and 1:30pm – 4:00pm.

Appointments

Appointments can be made during regular business hours. If you are unable to keep your appointment, we ask that you be considerate of other patients who may need to be seen by canceling as soon as possible. We may bill you a cancellation fee for a missed appointment without proper notification. If you arrive late for your appointment, we will make every attempt to see you; however, your appointment may have to be rescheduled.

Telephone Calls for the Providers or Nurse

Our phones are answered by our staff Monday through Friday 8:30am – 12:00pm and 1:30pm – 4:00pm. Our trained staff accepts all calls from patients, enabling the Doctor to spend more time with the patients in the office. A nurse will return all calls received before 4:00pm by the end of the day. Calls received after 4:00pm will be returned by the end of the next business morning.

After-Hours Emergency Calls

Our providers are always available after office hours for emergency calls. Night and weekend coverage is shared with qualified physicians. In a life-threatening situation, go to the nearest Emergency Room or call 911.

Prescriptions

Local Pharmacy
During your visit your Doctor will give you prescriptions in amounts to last until you need to be seen again. These follow-up appointments are scheduled so that your provider can monitor your condition and adjust medications accordingly. To ensure appointment availability, please make this appointment at the time of your current visit or at the time you get your last refill. If you do find yourself in need of more medication prior to your appointment, please call your pharmacy, who will notify us for any additional refills. Prescription requests could take 3 business days to complete, this means do not wait till you have taken your last medication. All controlled substances that need to be on a secure prescription can be requested from the office and picked up. If you are requesting multiple prescriptions and clarification is required to fulfill your needs and office visit will be requested by the physician. If Physician or staff spends a great deal of time with prior authorizations or clarification with your prescriptions an administrative fee will be applied, this fee is not billable to your insurance plan.

Mail Away Pharmacies
If you choose to send your prescription to an out of town pharmacy, you will be responsible for mailing new prescriptions. We do not have the resources to confirm if they have received your prescription. If your mail away pharmacy requests a 90 day supply, it is still at the physician’s discretion if he feels a 90 day supply is at your best interest at that time. If Physician or staff spends a great deal of time with prior authorizations or clarification with your prescriptions an administrative fee will be applied, this fee is not billable to your insurance plan.

Referrals

Some Insurance plans require your primary care doctor to obtain authorization to be referred to another provider/facility. If your Insurance plan requires this, we will try to obtain authorization from your insurance company within 5 business days. Please do not make an appointment with the specialist until you have a notification from us. If Physician or staff spends a great deal of time with prior authorizations or clarification with your referral an administrative fee will be applied, this fee is not billable to your insurance plan.

Lab Results

Lab Results
Normal Lab Results, you can have the option to review your lab results online using the patient portal once your physician has approved with an electronic signature. “No news is good news” If a result is not normal you will hear from our office.

Acute Illness Lab Results
All Lab Results will be discussed at your follow-up appointment.

Chronic Disease Results
Labs are drawn 1 week prior to your appointment. Results are reviewed at this appointment.

Treatment of a Minor

A minor is a person under the age of 18 who has never been married and never been declared an adult by a court. Generally, minors do not have the legal capacity to consent to medical treatment.

In order for us to treat a minor, we must have a written consent from a parent or legal guardian, including a statement as to the nature of the medical treatment to be given on a specific day.

Minors age 17 and under MUST be accompanied by an adult (18yrs old and older).

With the written consent, we will perform the following:

  • Examination
  • X-Rays
  • Other testing
  • Noninvasive procedures

We will not perform:

  • Invasive procedures
  • Immunizations
  • Injections

Responsibility for Ensuring Insurance Coverage

We accept dozens of insurance plans with various deductibles, co-pays, and coverage. We cannot know all of the coverage limitations and rules of your plan. It is important that you read and understand the provisions of your insurance.

You are responsible for ensuring that we are providers on your insurance plan and for knowing what services you have coverage for, including but not limited to office visits, labs, x-ray, procedures, physicals and immunizations. You will be responsible for paying for all services not covered by your insurance plan.

Please bring your insurance card to every visit.

Co-Pays

All co-pay payments are due at time of service when you check in we accept cash, checks and credit cards (American express, Visa, MasterCard)

Motor Vehicle Accidents (MVA)

We do not file charges for MVA insurance policies. All charges for services rendered due to a MVA are payable in full at the time of your visit. You will need to submit your charges and seek reimbursement from the MVA insurance company. Unless we can verify that your personal insurance plan will pay for the services as they would pay any other illness and stating under no circumstances they will ask us to repay any claims paid on behalf of their insured for treatment related to the MVA, i.e. no recoupment or deferred payment. This statement will need to be in written format from your personal insurance company. You will need to submit your charges and seek reimbursement from the MVA insurance company.

Third-Party Liability

“Third party liability” means that someone else’s insurance is to cover your illness/injury. For example, a fall at a grocery store, where the grocery store’s insurance will pay for your medical bills. We do not file charges for payment to attorneys or any other third-party payers. You will need to submit your charges and seek reimbursement from the third-party insurance payers.

Workman’s Compensation

We are pleased to see our own long term patients for Workers Compensation, with Physician approval. To meet legal requirements, we must have full insurance details, date of injury, claim number, claim address, and claim adjuster name, phone, fax, and email; it is the patient’s responsibility to obtain this information. Once this information is received we can start the process of authorizing your first appointment in order schedule your visit with your Physician. If this information/authorization is not available, then your visit will be regarded as a self-pay basis. We do not accept Workers Compensation cases from carriers that pay under Medicare rates.