Practice Policies

Co-Pays

Your co-pay obligation has been established by your insurance company--not our office. Our practice policy is in accordance with the agreement with the insurance companies which is that the co-pay must be paid at the time service is rendered. This means you must pay your co-pay which your insurance carrier has established in your insurance policy, when you bring your child in for their visit. All office visits require a co-pay, including visits with vaccines.

If you do not have your co-pay when you bring your child in for their Well Visit/Physical Examination, then unfortunately we will have to reschedule your child’s visit.

If however, your child must be brought in for an urgent care/ sick visit, and you inadvertently forgot your co-pay, our staff can direct you to the nearest ATM machine. As a last resort, should you need to have our practice bill you for your co-pay, we will need to charge a $5.00 billing fee. Unfortunately, too many of our patients do not pay us when they are billed for co-pays and this has had too much of a negative impact on our practice.

Copies of Medical Charts for Insurance Companies, Lawyers and Chart Transfers

First and foremost, we must be certain that we have a proper records release authorization. Under HIPAA guidelines, the information contained in a patients chart is protected health information (PHI). Accordingly, to release PHI, the records release authorization must be signed by that individual authorized by our HIPAA documentation to receive PHI.

Next, we must be certain to collect the proper fee for chart copying. Rules for copying records are published in the guidelines set by the New Jersey State Board of Medical Examiners.

These guidelines provide that for record copying, a medical practice may charge $1.00 (one dollar) per page, with a minimum of $10.00 (ten dollars) and a maximum of $100.00 (one hundred dollars). These fees are provided to offset the administrative costs of copying records. These fees must be collected at the front desk prior to the release of chart copies.

Visits Without an Appointment

We understand that your child can become suddenly ill or have a condition where you as the parent feel your child needs immediate medical attention. Our practice is sensitive to that need, and takes great strides to train our staff to accommodate our patient’s situations.

We do however discourage visits without an appointment.

First, when you bring your child in without an appointment, it throws off the schedule for the doctor or nurse, as they have a certain time allotted to see each patient. When you bring in your child without an appointment the medical provider is then rushed with seeing your child and the child who has the scheduled appointment - it simply does not allow the doctor/nurse adequate time for either visit.

Therefore, if you feel your child must be seen immediately, kindly call our office and speak to one of our staff members and we will see to it that you get an appointment as soon as your child’s situation dictates, or if it is an emergency situation, kindly take your child to the Emergency Room of your nearest hospital.

Forms Policy

Completing the necessary information for forms for your child gets to be an overwhelming and a time consuming task for our doctors and nurses. Our practice requires a minimum of seven (7) business days and a $10.00 fee to complete forms that are not brought in at the time of your child’s physical exam (HMA).

In the event that you need to have a form that completed that is not brought in at the time of the exam (HMA) and you need it completed in less than five(5) business days or less, there will be a $20.00 fee for this service.

No Show Policy

Effective July 18, 2005 there will be a $25.00 charge for all no-show patients. When patients fail to show up for their appointments it causes gaps and other problems with scheduling. Also, when patients fail to show up for their appointment without calling to cancel, then that time slot is not filled when it could be used for sick appointments or another patient who needs to be seen. Therefore, kindly call and cancel within 24 hours of your scheduled appointment to avoid being charge $25.00

Effective March 15, 2008 if patients have three (3) no show visits and fail to pay their previous no-show charges they will be discharged from the practice.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Referrals

Our practice prides itself on quick response time to our patient’s needs. With the vast amount of referral requests we receive, our office requires a minimum of 48 hours notice if your child needs a referral.