New Patients:
New patients should make arrangements to have old records sent to our office. Release of information forms are available in our office which can be completed and sent to your previous physician.

New patients should arrive 15 minutes early for their first appointment so that necessary registration forms can be completed.

Appointments:
Appointments can be made by calling 272-7009 during office hours. We ask that you choose one physician for your family. Except in urgent situations when your doctor is gone for the day, you will always see this physician. Appointments for well exams should be scheduled well in advance. Depending on the physician, we may be scheduling well care 6 to 9 weeks in advance. Scheduling well in advance gives us the best opportunity to accommodate a day of the week or time preference. As indicated earlier, we do make time available on a daily basis for sick children.

Telephone Calls:
Prompt attention to your phone call is very important to us. We ask your patience when calling our office. As often as possible, a nurse will answer your call as it comes in. As the early part of the day will be very busy with sick children, calls of a routine nature may be answered more quickly if you wait until a little later in the day. At very busy times, you may be asked to leave a message if the call is not of an emergent nature. A nurse, or if you prefer, your doctor will return your call as soon as possible. Please keep in mind that doctors are not interrupted with phone calls while seeing patients except in emergency situations.

Sometimes a problem cannot be resolved over the phone and we will recommend that you schedule an appointment so that an accurate diagnosis can be made.

We ask that prescription refills be handled during office hours so a chart record can be made. New prescriptions are not dispensed routinely over the phone.

If you need to page a physician before or after hours, please be prepared to answer some basic questions regarding your child’s name, age, problem, approximate weight, or current temperature if a fever has been a concern. Also have the phone number of your pharmacy available if needed.

Urgent Care and Emergencies:
We allow time in our schedule for urgent care so that if your child needs to be seen immediately, time will be available. If you feel your child has an urgent problem, please call us early in the day. All calls regarding a sick child are answered by our nursing staff. Since some problems require more time than others, the nurse will need some brief information about your child’s condition so that sufficient time can be scheduled for your appointment.

If there is an emergency at any time, call 272-7009. During our office hours, our nurse will assist you immediately. After hours and on weekends/holidays, our telephone message will give you information as to how to page our doctor on call. One of our physician staff is always available and will return your call as soon as possible after being paged. If you have not received a return phone call after 20 minutes, please call our dispatcher again to make certain your call was paged correctly.

Billing:
Our fees are set according to the usual and customary charges in our area. If you have a question about fees, billing or insurance, you may call 272-6955 during office hours and our patient account representative will assist you. You should also feel free to discuss our fees or billing procedures with your doctor.

As a convenience to our patients we will file insurance forms to your insurance carrier. It is extremely important that we have accurate information if we are to bill your insurance for you. Please notify us promptly of any change in insurance coverage.

If you have a copayment due on each visit the office, we request that the copayment is paid at the time of service. If you have a traditional or PPO insurance, a monthly statement will be sent to you to show both the charges and payments posted to your account. You will be financially responsible for amounts not paid by your insurer.

Occasionally, unexpected financial circumstances may make it difficult to pay a large balance at one time. If this is the case, our patient account representative will work with you to make payment arrangements. At no time do we intend to let inability to pay interfere with your child’s medical care.

If you are covered under an HMO, you would generally not receive a monthly statement unless copayments were not paid at the time of service.

Patients covered under a T-19 or Medicaid program must present a valid card for each visit.