Please bring the following to your appointment:
- Health insurance information including authorizations or referrals
- A picture ID
- List of prescription medications and dosages
- List of medications that you're allergic to or ever reacted too
- Pharmacy phone number
- List of questions you may have
- Recent test results related to your condition
- Paper and pencil to take notes
Patients are encouraged to make appointment. You may call our office to schedule an appointment any time during normal business hours. If there are any special issues or complex medical problems to discuss with the doctor, please inform our staff when making the appointment so that adequate time is allotted to address them. Time will be available each day for walk-ins and same-day sick visits.
Please arrive on time for your appointment. If you are late or walk-in without an appointment, you will be seen as time permits. If running late or you anticipate more than 15minutes lateness to your scheduled appointment please notify the office. If you are more than 15 minutes late, you may be asked to reschedule your appointment depending on the day’s schedule.
Please notify us 24 hours in advance if you must cancel or change your appointment time. Patients who fail to show for any appointment or do not give 24 hours’ notice will have a notation in their chart and will be charged $25 for each visit you “no show” or do not give 24 hours’ notice of cancellation. Please note that appointments missed without notification hinder us from seeing other patients who may be ill and is an inconvenience to the clinic.
We recommend yearly check-ups for ideal preventative care and health maintenance. For routine yearly check-ups, pre-participation sports physicals, and adult annual exams, please schedule your appointment 2-4 weeks in advance.
Patients under 18 years should be accompanied to their appointments. If someone other than a parent or legal guardian must accompany the patient, we must have a completed Medical Authorization for Minors form on file stating the relationship of that person to the child and authorization for that person to approve any treatment that may be necessary.
All calls to the office will be returned as soon as we possibly can. Our medical assistants, nurses, and physician return calls in the order of medical urgency. You will be asked to leave a message and a telephone number where you can be reached. If your call is about a prescription, please have a pharmacy number, name of medication and dosage ready.
If you are experiencing a life threatening condition, please call 911 and or go to the nearest emergency room after leaving a message. Your doctor will call you and or your next of kin as soon as possible.
We believe that our patients should have 24-hour access to medical advice should an urgent situation arise. We ask that after hours call be limited to current medical issues that cannot or should not wait until the office reopens.
To reach the on-call physician or NP, please call our office and if calling after business hours, please call 817-966-3226 and leave a message. Please allow a minimum of 30 minutes for your call to be returned.
Our providers prefer to examine each patient for proper diagnosis and treatment as such; antibiotics are not prescribed over the phone because there are many diagnoses with similar symptoms.
Prescription refill requests are handled most efficiently by calling your pharmacy directly to request a refill. If refills remain from the original prescription, the pharmacy simply fills your prescription. If there are no refills remaining, the pharmacy will contact our office for authorization to fill the prescription.
Refill requests can also be made through our Patient Portal, when requesting a refill through the portal, be sure to enter the names of the needed medications.
Please remember that most tests take 2-5 business days for results to be reported to our office. All laboratory results will be reported once we receive the information from the laboratories and or diagnostic centers. Afterwards, a copy of the results will be made available on your patient portal.
Laboratory results cannot be obtained after-hours and cannot be discussed with the on-call physician.
An updated shot record will be provided during every check-up. Immunization records are also available thru our Patient Portal. Immunization records can be faxed with a verbal request from the adult patient or parent/legal guardian of the patient.
Please be advised that we complete these forms only if a complete checkup or physical examination has been done in the past year. Due to the number of forms we receive, we require at least 2 business days for completion.
FMLA forms, Disability Forms, Medical Certifications and Medicare Medical Necessity Certification are subject to a $25 fee and may need up to 4 business days for completion.
If you need to see a specialist, we will provide you with the names of excellent specialists in our community to choose from. As a patient, it is your responsibility to ensure that your specialist is on your plan. It is also your responsibility to ensure your specialist receives your test results.
You should pick-up a copy of your test results from our office or any other office(s) and hand deliver them to your specialist. We will not fax test results and it is possible that the specialist will not see you without these results. This is not something we have control over.
If your insurance plan requires approval or authorization for referrals to a specialist, radiological imaging center, or other medical facility, please inform our office prior to referral. We require 2 business days’ notice to facilitate a referral request and cannot issue retroactive referrals.
Please understand that certain referrals may take up to 1 week for submission and approval from your insurance company.
If you are moving or need a copy of your medical records for other purposes, please make your request at least 2 weeks in advance. An Authorization to Release Medical Information form must be signed prior to release of record.
Because of privacy concerns, we will only fax medical records when requested by other physicians or medical facilities. Immunization records can be faxed with a verbal request from the adult patient or parent/legal guardian of the patient.
We do not prescribe narcotics for chronic use. We do not call in narcotics after hours. If you require use of narcotics beyond our recommendation, our physicians will refer you to a pain management specialist.
Reasons for dismissal include:
- Failure to keep appointments, frequent no-shows
- Noncompliance, which means you won’t follow physician instructions about an important health issue
- Narcotics shopping / abuse
- Abusive to staff
- Failure to pay your bill
If you are “dismissed” from the practice it means you can no longer schedule appointments, get medication refills or consider us to be your doctor. You have to find a doctor in another practice.
Dismissal Process: We will send a letter to your last known address, via certified mail, notifying you that you are being dismissed. If you have a medical emergency within 30 days of the date on this letter, we will see you. After that, you must find another doctor.
We will forward a copy of your medical record to your new doctor after you let us know who it is and sign a release form.
WE ACCEPT MANY FORMS OF INSURANCE INCLUDING MEDICARE.
WE ALSO ACCEPT CASH AND HAVE PAYMENT PLANS.
Payment is required at the time services are provided unless other arrangements have been made in advance.
We participate in many insurance plans. We recommend that you become familiar with your insurance benefits- including eligibility, covered benefits, co-insurance and deductibles. Most misunderstandings about insurance can be avoided if you understand what your policy covers. Please contact your insurance company with any questions you may have regarding your coverage. You are responsible for deductibles, co-pays, co-insurance, non-covered services, and items considered “not medically necessary” by your insurance company.
As a courtesy to our patients, our office will file claims on your behalf. Please be advised that, excluding Medicare, we do not file secondary insurance. You will be asked to present a current insurance card at every visit. If your insurance cannot be verified, payment for services is expected in full at the time of the visit. Please inform us of any changes to your address, contact information, insurance, or responsible party. Inaccurate demographic and insurance information may result in denial of your insurance claims. Your insurance may require additional information from you in order to process the claim. Failure to comply with their request within 30 days will result in full patient responsibility for the claim.
Please make sure that our physicians participate in your specific insurance plan. You can verify this by either checking your insurance plan provider directory or by calling your carrier directly.
Similarly, if we need to refer you to a specialist, please refer to your insurance plan listing of participating providers to ensure that the specialist is in your plan network prior to making an appointment.
Pursuant to our participation with your insurance plan, we are required to collect co-pays, deductibles, and co-insurance at the time of service. For minor patients, payment will be collected and is expected from the parent/ guardian present at the visit. We accept cash, debit cards, Mastercard, Visa, and Discover. We accept American Express for charges greater than $50.
Outstanding patient/ guarantor account balances will be mailed or emailed. Payment for outstanding account balances or arrangement of a payment plan is expected within 30 days of the statement billing date. Accounts more than 90 days past due will be assessed an administrative fee of $25 and forwarded to a collection agency. Should your account become delinquent, you will be responsible for any and all legal fees, court costs, and collection fees involved as a result of any collection activity.
Returned checks will incur a fee of $35. If more than one returned check is received on your account, we will require all future payments to be made by cash, cashier’s check, or credit card.
All requests for Summary Statements require 2 business days to complete. Please note that if you would like the statement faxed to you, you must provide written authorization per HIPAA.