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Appointments Insuranc and Fees Referrals Prescriptions

Insurance and Fees:

It has long been a policy of this practice that payment for services rendered is required at the time of service.  If, however, your visit is covered by an insurance plan with which we participate, then only the co-pay is required at the time of the visit.  While we do not like to dwell on this issue, we must enforce this.  Therefore, if a co-pay is not paid at the time of the visit, a surcharge will be added to the co-pay and will be the responsibility of the patient.

If this is an important issue for you, then you are urged to call the office to be sure that your company is one with which we participate.  A number of patients come to us with insurance coverage with whom we DO NOT participate.  If this situation applies to you, we will try to help you get the reimbursement from your insurance company.  You will be expected to pay for the services at the time of your visit.

Referrals:
Referrals are required by some of the insurances.  If you are being referred to us by your primary care physician, it is your responsibility to bring a referral with you that authorizes the visit (or visits).  REFERRALS ARE THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE PATIENT -- this is the policy of all the insurance companies that require referrals.  It is the policy of this office that the patient is responsible for all fees resulting from a visit if the visit is not covered by the patient's insurance (and this includes visits without valid referrals).  If you arrive without a valid referral in hand, you will be asked to sign a waiver acknowledging your responsibility for the fees incurred should your insurance company deny payment to us because of lack of a valid referral.  An appointment without a valid referral is the same as an appointment without insurance -- the patient is responsible for payment of the charges.

Prescriptions:

Please try to remember to get your prescriptions at the time of your appointment.  If you are not sure if you need a new one, you are still better off asking for one and then using it on the next trip to the pharmacy.  We make every effort to discourage you from calling in for prescriptions.  Telephoned prescriptions have a greater chance of errors being made, and require a great deal of personnel time in fielding the request, as well as having to contact the pharmacy --- time spent on HOLD with the pharmacy can add up during the course of the day, preventing the Medical Assistants and nurses from helping the patients in the office.  We would like to avoid this.  If you do call in for a prescription, you will likely be asked to come in to pick it up.