Communication

To maximize our time with each patient in the office, we try to do much of our non-urgent communication through our patient portal. Although we are often quick to respond to this method of communication, please allow us up to 5 business days to respond to your message. For this reason, all urgent matters should be called in. If your matter can wait until we are in the office, please feel free to leave a message on our voice mail. Thank you!

Emergency care / After hours coverage

During regular hours, if you are having an urgent issue, please call our office so we can direct you to the most appropriate care. After hours, you will be able to call our office and ring through to the physician on call for complications from surgery. If you are not able to get through or do not get a call back within 20 minutes, please go directly to your local urgent care or hospital.

Payment

All copays and outstanding balances must be paid in full at the time of service . We accept cash, personal checks, Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express. There is a $35 service charge for all returned checks. Patients with outstanding balances over 60 days must make arrangements for payment prior to scheduling appointments. Payment plans are available. Depending on the insurance plan for which you signed up, your insurance company determines what portion of the claim they will cover. If you receive a bill from us and expect that your insurance company should have paid it, please call your insurance company directly to dispute. If your bill is more than 120 days old and we have not received payment and have not heard from you, a decision will be made whether to send your account to a collection agency for further action. We reserve the right to terminate you from our practice.

If you do not have insurance, please call our office for an estimate on the cost of a visit or procedure.

Cancellation and Rescheduling policy

Appointments in the office must be canceled or rescheduled at least 24 hours prior to the appointment time. For surgery, you must be outside of one week to avoid a cancellation or rescheduling fee. We understand that occasionally in life, there are extenuating circumstances, please let us know so that we can handle your cancellation accordingly. We, as an office, spend time preparing for your visit. By not canceling a scheduled appointment in advance, our physician's ability to provide services to other patients is limited. We reserve the right to assess a $50 fee for any missed in-office or virtual appointment. The cancellation or rescheduling fee for surgery is $250 if you are within 7 days of the surgery date.

Missed appointments

Missed appointments automatically generate a fee. The “No show” fee for an office appointment is $50, for surgery at the hospital it is $250. Excessive abuse of scheduled appointments may result in discharge from the practice.

Prescription refill

Requests for prescription refills may be obtained by having your pharmacy send us a request. You may also request refills directly through our online patient portal. Please provide us with your pharmacy name and location. Controlled substances (such as narcotic pain meds) require an office visit and a hard copy prescription. If you require medication for long-term maintenance of conditions or birth control, a follow-up office visit may be required prior to the prescription being renewed. You may want to consider using a mail order pharmacy as this may save you substantial money. Please allow 48 hours to process any non-urgent requests.

Medical Record Request

Feel free to print or transmit your records and lab tests from your patient portal - you can do this for free! Before we can mail or fax any information to an outside agency at your request, we require written consent be on file in our office. You may do this by sending us a message through the patient portal or by mailing a letter to our office that provides what you would like sent and to whom, please include a fax number or address. There is a $25 fee for printing, mailing or faxing your records.

Forms

All forms require an office visit to complete and should be filled out in advance with as much information as you know before handing it to us. Allow ten business days for the completion of any forms (i.e. FMLA paperwork, work forms, etc). Please provide us with a self-addressed stamped envelope or make it clear where it needs to be faxed.

Your Privacy

Your medical record privacy is very important to us. There are HIPAA rules that guide how we manage your records. Please review and sign our privacy policy in the patient portal to understand our shared responsibility.