Practice Policies

HELPFUL PRE-APPOINTMENT INFORMATION FOR OUR PATIENTS

We are very appreciative of the confidence and trust you have placed in us to select our practice for your medical care. On our PATIENT FORMS page you will find various forms that you may need to fill out and bring to your appointment. Please review the PATIENT FORMS page to see if there are any that are applicable to your appointment. Additionally, those patients who have Patient Portal Access may want to log in using their unique username and password and review their health care summary and notify us of any updates or changes.

Please remember the following:

• Please arrive at least 15 minutes prior to your scheduled appointment time. If you are late for your appointment, the physician will not be able to address all medical issues during your initial visit and even may be unable to see you and request you to reschedule for another time. We make every effort to see patients in a timely fashion and your prompt arrival helps us accomplish this.
• Please bring all necessary insurance information and cards and a valid form of picture identification with you to each and every visit and inform us of any changes in your health insurance status or demographic and contact information.
• If we DO participate with your insurance plan, your co-payment is expected at the time of your appointment. There may be additional charges over and above your co-payment due at the time of your appointment or afterwards depending on your specific insurance benefits package.
• If we DO NOT participate in your insurance plan or you have no insurance, full payment of all charges is expected at the time of your appointment.
• Your insurance is a contract between you, your employer and the insurance company. We are not a party to that contract. It is very important that you understand the provisions of your policy. We cannot guarantee payment of all claims. If your insurance company pays only a portion of the bill or rejects your claim, any contact or explanation should be made to you, their policy holder. Reduction or rejection of your claim by your insurance does not relieve you of your financial obligation.
• We accept American Express, Mastercard, Visa, Discover, a local personal check with ID, and cash.
• Please bring with you to your appointment all the actual bottles or boxes of medications, vitamins, or supplements (prescription or over-the-counter) that you take regularly.
• Please print, fill out, and bring the applicable forms for your appointment on the PATIENT FORMS page of our website.
• We will give you a courtesy call 2 business days prior to your appointment as a reminder.
• If you are unable to keep your appointment, we expect to be notified of your cancellation with 24 business hour prior to your appointment time (therefore, if you have an appointment on the day after a holiday or weekend, you must notify us on the previous business day or Friday respectively) . If insufficient or no notice is given, a cancellation fee in the amount of $30 per 15 minute time allotment of your appointment will be charged based on how much time was allotted for your appointment.

ROUTINE MEDICATION REFILLS

Please anticipate your refills needs which MUST be addressed at your appointments with your physician. If you find that you are running out of your medications between your routinely scheduled appointments, we will require 7 business days to process your request. Please realize that refills filled through mail order pharmacies require additional time to process and may take an additional 2 weeks to be delivered to you once we have authorized them for you.

It is important to have routine follow-up to assess the efficacy and side effects of prescription medications. If you are past due for a planned office visit, we will only authorize a small quantity until we can ensure continued safety and appropriateness of your medications in an office visit.

AFTER-HOURS PHYSICIAN ON-CALL

We provide 24 hour physician coverage even when our physicians are away. After office hours, weekends, and holidays, simply call us at 703 707-0607 to receive instructions on how to page the physician on call. The physician on call will respond within ½ hour. It is very important that you be able to readily provide the physician with the names and doses of your medications, your drug allergies, and the telephone number of your pharmacy and a 24 hour pharmacy near you. We ask that no routine refills be requested of the on-call physician. No narcotics or controlled or scheduled medications will be refilled or prescribed after hours.

FEES

Our professional, laboratory and testing fees are very competitive with other physicians in the area. If you belong to a medical insurance plan in which we participate, you will be responsible for your co-payment and/or deductible at the time of service - all other charges will be billed directly to the insurance company. All patients are responsible for deductibles, uncovered benefits, and any outstanding balances determined by your insurance company after your claim has been processed. If we do not participate in your medical insurance plan, we expect payment for all office services at the time of your visit including payment for any past due balances. All patients will receive an itemized receipt at the end of their visit containing all the information insurance companies will need to process claims.

We accept Mastercard, Visa, Discover, American Express and a local personal check with ID, and cash (exact change please). If we are unable to cash a check payment for any reason, there will be a $50 processing fee in addition to any other cancelled check fees that we incur and we will request immediate payment using another form of payment. If a monthly payment plan might be necessary, our billing staff can help you and we ask that you contact us PRIOR to your visit.