All patients are encouraged to call with any questions. Staff is available to answer the phones Monday-Friday. The office staff is trained to answer most non-clinical questions. For medically related questions, the staff will triage the call and forward it appropriately to one of our clinical staff. Response time will vary during office hours. If you feel an urgency regarding a medical issue, our staff will be happy to accommodate you with an appointment immediately, so that we can assess your concern rather than waiting for a call back. Our physicians typically return most non-urgent calls after office hours.
If you need to contact our practice after hours please call our main phone number. A provider is available 24hrs/day, 7 days/week including all weekends and holidays. Our practice does not charge for after hours calls. While we encourage all patients to call with any significant medical concern, we respectfully request that any non-emergent issues be addressed during normal business hours.
When calling after hours you will get a voice mail prompt indicating that the office is currently closed. It will then instruct you in transferring the call to our afterhours call center. The message will be given to our on call provider, who will then call you back promptly. Please be certain that your call back phone number will accept calls from anonymous/blocked phone numbers. For privacy purposes, our physicians frequently use blocked phones.
It is the policy of the office that no new medication is prescribed without first being seen in the office. Furthermore, it is the physician's policy not to phone in any prescriptions without the patient being evaluated in the office. For all refill prescriptions, please have your pharmacy contact us via phone. Patients receiving maintenance controlled substances prescriptions require quarterly visits to the office to ensure the safety and efficacy of the medications.
Co-payments and Deductibles: Your plan often requires you to pay a co-payment and/or meet a yearly deductible. We expect these payments at the time of service. Please be sure that whoever accompanies your child to the office brings the payment with them. We accept cash, checks, and all major credit and debit cards. Co-payments are a contractual obligation between you, your health plan and our practice; if the co-payment obligation is not met, your insurance plan has the right to deny the charges. This may leave you responsible for the services rendered during your visit.
You will receive a monthly statement from our billing department if there is any outstanding balance on your account. Our insurance department is available to help you should you have any questions concerning your balance or statement. Your statement will provide you with a detailed aging of how long balances have been outstanding. Our financial policy requires that balances older than 120 days are forwarded to our collection agency and we terminate our relationship as your child's physician. We would be happy to assist you in setting up a payment plan. You can reach the billing department at the number at the bottom of your statement.
We encourage you to check with your particular plan to ensure that our doctors are participating providers before you are seen at the office. We are happy to file insurance claims, on your behalf, to your primary insurance carrier. However, please understand that you are ultimately responsible for the payment of all charges incurred with the office, regardless of your coverage or reimbursement. Please also be advised that it is your responsibility to inform us of any changes to your insurance coverage immediately. This will ensure that you are not held personally liable for any charges due to incorrect coverage information.
In addition, most insurance plans cover 1 well exam per calendar year. Please check with your individual plan for coverage. Our office will try to accommodate these visits, but ultimately you will be responsible for payment of premature appointments.
We are happy to provide you with referrals to sub-specialists as needed. We respectfully request the sub-specialists contact information be provided to our office as soon as the appointment is made. Please allow up to 1 week for the referral to be completed. We also realize that emergent appointments will arise and we will make every effort to accommodate those requests.
Medical records must be requested in writing and signed by a parent or guardian. A copy fee will be determined and is payable at the time of pick up. Please allow up to 30 days for preparation of records. Immunization records are available free of charge and can be picked up by hand or faxed. Click on the link below to download the Medical Records Release form.
Medical Records Release