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| As you all know, winter is generally the hardest time for most of our patients. At times, the wait to see the doctor may be lengthy, even in the summer. It is important to us that you know we are always doing our best to accommodate our “sick patients” as quickly as possible, as well as keeping on schedule with our required well visits (which are usually scheduled some time in advance). This is invariably a juggle. We often cannot determine by a phone call just how lengthy the visit will actually be. This is generally an unknown factor. Please be prepared if such circumstances should occur.
We have established policies and guidelines for our practice that we feel will help in aiding us to be a more efficient and organized office that will make your appointment a more pleasant experience. Please know that while you are waiting, we are all working to the best of our abilities to give quality patient care to each of our patients in a timely manner.
Appointments
Visits are by appointment only. However, if you or your child is seriously ill, we will always try to accommodate your “walking in”. Please keep in mind, our office is not set up to be an acute care facility, so, not having an appointment could result in a lengthy wait.
We encourage well check appointments to be made in advance. Any appointee arriving for their appointment 20 minutes late will generally need to reschedule. If you know you are going to be late, please call and let us know. We will do our best to work you in in a timely manner. It is not a problem for more than one child to be scheduled together. However, we must ask that you inform us of this prior to your appointment. Otherwise, we may be obliged to reschedule. This helps in enabling us to be prepared stay on schedule. This is one of the most common reasons for the doctor to “get behind”. School and work notes for absences are obtained from the front desk. We cannot fill these out unless you were seen during the time requested for the note.
Waiting Time
If you walk in without an appointment, you will be seen on an “emergency work-in basis”. Please be prepared to wait. We will, again, do our best to have you seen as soon as possible. We appreciate your busy schedule, and will inform you when we are running behind schedule, making every effort to let you know about how long your wait may be. We will generally attempt to contact you prior to your appointed time if we have had multiple appointments called in, so please give us the most available phone numbers and updated information. This is a courtesy to you; you may reschedule or at least you will know the status prior to arrival. Please come 15 minutes before your scheduled appointment time. The later you come, the longer the wait may be.
Payment
Payment is due at the time of your visit or when services are rendered. If you have insurance, please be sure we are in your network. We will file your insurance as a service to you. However, you still remain the responsible party for any leftover balance or any lengthy claim problems. We will ask that you help us with your insurance claims if necessary.
Claims that are not paid by your insurance within 45–60 days remain your responsibility. You must check with your insurance company or will then be responsible for the full amount due after 60 days. No secondary insurances are filed unless prior arrangements have been made. You, as the insured, are responsible for knowing your benefits. All insurance companies will help you with this. We will “assist” you as necessary, however, as a small office we are not equipped to research every patient’s benefits. We thank you in advance in your understanding of this policy. If your insurance requires an authorization number or prior authorization for referrals, we must have a 72-hour notification to ensure that you will have it before your appointment at the consultant’s office. Failure to obtain the required referral may result in being requested to reschedule your appointment. Alternatively, you may be held responsible for the full amount of the specialist visit. Payments may be made with the following:
Cash
Check (No temporary checks please)
Credit Cards/Debit Cards (Visa & MasterCard)
We work on good faith and realize there may be unplanned financial difficulties. We are happy to work with you, however, once a payment plan is established, we do expect compliance unless other arrangements have been discussed. All questions regarding payment, finances or insurance should be directed to our billing company, MedNet @817-625-9292. Dr. Kenneth LeCroy and Dr. Tara LeCroy, owners, are here to care for their patients and the doctors and nurse practitioners are not involved in financial matters. FMLA forms require a form to be filled out in advance and there is a $25 processing fee. These forms can take several days to process.
Phone Calls If you or your child is ill, or if you have spoken with a medical asst., nurse practitioner or doctor the night before, please call as early as possible during the day to schedule your appointment. Please be patient! We will assist you as soon as possible. We usually have several lines ringing, and calls are taken in chronological order. The Medical Assistants will return your calls as soon as possible (we appreciate you patience in waiting for them to do so). The patients who are ill and in the office, however, do take priority. If you believe you or your child is sick, or has been sick for several days, it is in your and your child’s best interest to make an appointment, rather than wait for a callback. The front office can also check with a doctor or nurse between patients and will be happy to help you if that is possible.- During office hours, the doctors may only receive emergency calls from other doctors in order to maintain their daily schedule. If you feel that they must call you and it is not an emergency, it will have to wait until after hours. It is often better (especially with a lengthy problem) to schedule a consultation or appointment for you or your child.
Answering Service
- There is a 24 - hour answering service available to all patients. This is considered an urgent service available for “sick” patients. We do not want you to hesitate to call if you are concerned about your child or yourself, however, we ask that you please limit it to such circumstances. It is much easier for us to handle making/changing appointments and basic non-urgent questions during regular business hours, as the answering service does not have access to our scheduling or billing systems.
- If you have any difficulties or problems with the answering service or with call backs after hours, please inform us.
Lab Work
- All lab work is sent to Lab Corp. If your insurance requires a specific lab such as LabOne, your lab fees will not be covered in our office. Please make prior arrangements for the doctor or nurse practitioner to write up required lab work on a script.
Lab results are usually placed on our 800 # within 72 - 84 hours, unless abnormal readings are found. In such a case we will call you. You may request that your results be mailed to you. Please have a self-addressed and stamped envelope available. If you do not we will be happy to provide one for a dollar (1$). Cultures and pathology reports take a longer amount of time. Please be patient for these results, as we will have to have a doctor review before we call with the results.
Prescriptions
- Please allow 24 hours for prescription requests to be handled. Our office is not equipped to call in or fax requests immediately. These will be handled at the end of the day.
If you need a refill on a medication please use the pharmacy’s refill line to handle this. They will then fax us a request. Calling our office and asking for refills results in greatly increasing our work load. Where applicable, 90-day prescription forms are your responsibility to obtain and fill out, or have faxed to us by your mail order pharmacy. If your prescription is a triplicate or a controlled substance script, we will need 48 hours notice to process. Your cooperation in this policy is greatly appreciated.
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