|
Patient Policies |
| WHAT TO BRING TO YOUR APPOINTMENT
Please bring the following with you to your appointment:
Please note that smoking is prohibited on the grounds of our facility.
CONFIDENTIALITY
We realize the confidential nature of medical diagnoses and other information pertinent to your treatment. Employees are strictly prohibited from disclosing any private, personal, or confidential patient information that they are made aware of in connection to your association with our practice without your written consent. If you have a special request in how your personal or medical information should be handled, please submit it to the staff in writing by completing the Authorized Representative Form with your signature and date. Please note that we do make appointment reminder calls so if this is a sensitive issue for you, or if you have any other sensitive issues surrounding the various methods in which our office may communicate with you, please read our Notice of Privacy Practices for ID Consultants or Travel Health very carefully. APPOINTMENTS / TARDINESS FEES
Our doctors spend the day making rounds at area hospitals. Therefore, most have appointments available only on a limited basis during the week. Because our appointment slots fill up quickly, we require at least a 24-hour notice if you do not intend to keep your appointment so that we can allow another patient to have your slot. Failure to reschedule or cancel an appointment without at least 24 hours’ notice will result in a $50 fee being assessed to your account for new patient appointments and a $25 fee for established patient appointments. The fee must be paid before a new appointment can be made. For the same reason, if you are more than 15 minutes late, we will need to reschedule your appointment in order to avoid a longer delay for other patients. If you miss an appointment, we will send you a reminder in the mail. If you have an urgent medical problem, please call our office and leave a detailed message with your doctor’s nurse and a number where you can be reached directly. The nurse will call you back in a timely manner and arrange for you to be seen as soon as possible if necessary. Please note that oftentimes after receiving your message, the nurse must confer with your physician first (who may not be immediately present) before calling you back. If you have an emergency, please dial 911 or go directly to the hospital emergency room.
CALLING OUR NURSES Please note that when you call our nurses, oftentimes they are away from their desks. They may be escorting patients to the exam rooms, assisting the physicians and patients, or returning phone calls to hospitals, pharmacies, home health agencies, and other physicians’ offices and patients. Please do not call back and leave duplicate messages, as this causes a slowdown on our return phone calls. Phone calls returned to patients are done in the order received, prioritized by the order of the medical urgency. Calls received after 3:00 PM will be returned the next business day.
PRESCRIPTION REFILLS Please call your pharmacy to have them fax a refill request to our office at Fax # 704-688-0035 for all prescription refills. Requesting a refill through your pharmacy allows us to more efficiently handle your request. Since your physician may be on rounds at the hospital, please allow at least 72 hours’ notice in advance of requiring a refill. Please do NOT wait until you are almost out of medication before calling your pharmacy, as the sooner you call, the sooner we will be able to serve you. In the event that you do need to call our office, please leave the following information on the nurses’ voice mail: - Your name, date of birth, and phone number; - Name and dosage of the prescription you need refilled; and - Name and phone number of the pharmacy where the refill is to be called in to. * Please note that we do NOT refill prescriptions after hours or on the weekends. Prescription refills are processed only during normal business hours of Monday to Friday 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Additionally, in the event that you have not seen your physician in at least four (4) months, please understand that we may only be able to authorize your refill for a thirty (30) day supply. This may present a financial disincentive to you if your prescription copay (if applicable) is not reduced by your health plan whether your refill is for a 30- or 90-day supply. Therefore, for optimal care and financial incentives with your prescription plan, please adhere to the follow-up schedule as determined by your health care practitioner. LABORATORY TESTS For your convenience, ID Consultants collaborates with LabCorp for providing laboratory services to our patients. Although LabCorp participates with most major insurance plans, it does not participate with all plans. Therefore, it is to your benefit to know the full terms of your insurance plan, including which hospitals and laboratories are in your network. If your insurance plan is not in network with LabCorp or if, for any reason, you would rather not have your labwork sent to LabCorp for processing, please notify your nurse at the start of your visit. You may have the option of requesting a lab requisition form with your doctor’s orders to take elsewhere to another laboratory for service. Please note that ID Consultants is not an affiliate of LabCorp and vice versa. Your visit to our office will likely involve a bill being generated by LabCorp. LabCorp will bill your insurance but will hold you ultimately responsible for payment. Please note that we have no control over their billing you for labwork done on your behalf. Therefore, if you receive a bill from LabCorp and have questions, please call them at 800-995-1533, or you may visit them online at https://www.labcorp.com/wps/portal/patient/mybill/billing. We merely offer an in-house lab service provider for our patients’ convenience. You are not required to use LabCorp’s services against your wishes, but the responsibility rests upon you to inform your nurse prior to services being rendered if you wish to opt for another lab service provider. DISABILITY FORMS & REQUESTS FOR MEDICAL RECORDS Please allow at least ten (10) business days’ notice for the completion of disability forms, return-to-work certificates, and for copies of your medical records. The following fees are assessed:
PARTICIPATING NETWORKS The following are health plans we participate with as of October, 2011:
Please note that this list of participating insurers will change from time to time. This list in no way guarantees that your insurer will cover a visit even to an in-network provider. It will ultimately be up to your insurer to make that determination. Please continue reading the sections below for further guidance. PAYMENT OBLIGATIONS AT THE TIME OF SERVICE We will request your payment obligations upfront at the time of your visit. Please note that failure to pay your copay and/ or prior balance at the time of visit will result in your appointment being rescheduled. If you anticipate an issue with fully meeting this obligation, you may wish to call our BIlling Office in advance of your appointment or plan to arrive 30 minutes before your appointment to speak to a Billing Office representative prior to your visit. PATIENTS WITH INSURANCE PLANS WE ARE IN NETWORK WITH Your copay, deductible, and any outstanding balances will be due during the check-in procedure. If you have a Health Reimbursement Account (HRA) or a Health Savings Account (HSA) plan, we will request a minimum of $50 as your copay. We accept cash, checks, Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover. Payment may be made via our web site by clicking here. We will file your insurance and mail you a statement for any remaining amounts. Payment is due upon receipt of a statement showing the bill as your patient responsibility. If payment is not received within 90 days, your account may be referred for professional collection proceedings. Please note that LabCorp will bill you separately for any lab tests done in our office. PATIENTS WITH INSURANCE PLANS WE DO NOT PARTICIPATE WITH We will request payment of $150 upfront for the initial visit and thereafter, at each subsequent visit, the balance due on your account. We will file your insurance and bill you for the remaining balance not paid by your plan. If payment is not received within 90 days, your account may be referred for professional collection proceedings. Please note that LabCorp will bill you separately for any lab tests done in our office. PATIENTS WITHOUT INSURANCE A visit to our office will likely include a fee for your consultation, any procedures, injections, vaccines, or medications administered during your visit, as well as any lab tests that were ordered. Labcorp will bill you directly for any labwork done in our office. If you are especially concerned about cost, please be forewarned that some procedures (e.g., infusion therapy), medications, vaccines, and labwork are specialty items and carry a high price tag. This should be of particular concern for those who are uninsured (or those with a high deductible health plan). If you do not have insurance, payment of $330 will be requested upfront for the initial visit. Follow-up visits will require payment of $150, which represents only part of your visit fee and does NOT include any labwork, procedures, injections, vaccines, or medications administered during your visit. Upon check-out when total charges for your visit will be determined, we will request the remaining payment in full for your entire visit. Patients who pay for their office services in full at the time of their visit are eligible for a point-of-sale (POS) discount of 25% off the bill for that day’s visit. The POS discount only applies to visits and services done in ID Consultants’ office paid at the point of sale (time of service) by those who are truly uninsured. (Travel Health does not offer a POS discount for its services.) If you later ask that the service(s) be filed to insurance, the POS discount will automatically be voided even if the claim is returned as being applied toward the deductible since this would indicate that coverage was indeed in effect at the time services were rendered. WHAT IF I CANNOT PAY MY BALANCE If you are unable to abide by the financial policies above, immediately contact our Billing Office at (704) 331-4175 so that your account is appropriately documented and managed. You may qualify for making payment plans. In any event, please note that if you receive a collection note on any correspondence from our office, call us immediately, as delinquent accounts may be referred to an outside collection agency. Patients with severe financial difficulties may apply for financial hardship by contacting our Billing Office before service is rendered. A prerequisite to applying for financial hardship is the requirement that you show proof that you have applied for Medicaid. Our financial hardship application will include a process for documentation of your income, expenses, and net worth of assets minus liabilities. COLLECTION AGENCY If you receive a delinquent notice from us or in particular, a notice from our collection agency, First Point Collection Resources Inc, please respond immediately! You may find them on the web at www.FirstPointResources.com or by dialing 800-609-5666. Having your account number handy would be helpful when you call. First Point also provides you the opportunity to pay your notice online at www.firstpointpay.com. We Accept the Following Methods Of Payment: CASH, CHECKS, VISA, MASTERCARD, AMERICAN EXPRESS & DISCOVER. Returned checks are subject to a $30 service fee. |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
|
||||||
 |
|
||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|||||