Our phones are turned over to voicemail to allow us to focus on taking care of patients here in the office. Simply leave us a message. These are checked several times an hour and you can expect a response within 24 hours (usually same day). 

I do not prescribe controlled substances/habit forming medications such as Opioids or some Sleep Aids. Refills are done only at appointments, but each time a prescription is written it is usually valid for 9 months. We do not call in medications to the pharmacy. If your pharmacy loses your prescriptions, you will need to be seen to have them re-written. 

This stands for By The Way and usually happens near the end of a visit where the patient brings up some new issue that they were not scheduled for. It’s bad for us because it makes me run late/adds to paperwork, which in turn upsets the patients scheduled after you. It’s bad for you because dropping this unexpected problem on a doctor usually leads to inadequate consideration of your issue. The better solution is to offer you a separate appointment so this new issue can be given the time/consideration it deserves. If you make us aware of a new issue prior to a scheduled appointment, I can tackle that first at the appointment and reschedule you for the original issues we were going to address.

I believe medicine is best practiced face to face, not over the phone or email. If you have a medical concern, we’ll need to address it at an appointment. If there is a question/concern from a friend or family member, they will be encouraged to come in with you to an appointment to address matters.

The short answer is yes. The longer answer is that I prefer to not have that person be another one of my patients (including husbands and wives). The main reason being that the scheduled patient’s appointment inevitably becomes the unscheduled patient’s appointment. Of course, there are exceptions to this for patients that are acutely ill or suffering from cognitive impairment. For parents that are still accompanying their adult children to appointments, we won’t be able to accommodate this and another practice is suggested.

You will be scheduled for an Introductory Visit to be sure we are a good fit for you. I won’t be able to address new issues at this appointment. I will obtain your medical history from both you and through medical records review. We will then schedule a Physical/Wellness Exam and a Follow Up to review everything and plan future care of chronic/new issues.

I do ask that all patients schedule one of these per year. This is broken up into 2 separate appointments- the actual Physical which entails a complete medical history/healthcare prevention review/exam/testing and then a Follow Up to review the results of any testing (copays apply to all visits if applicable per your health plan).

I do not fill out any Disability, Medical Leave, or Commercial Driver’s License paperwork. If appropriate, I do complete Disability Placard/Plate requests, Juror’s Excuse letters, as well as standard Return To Work notes. I also complete admission paperwork for placement in Skilled Nursing/Assisted Living Facilities, Physical Therapy orders, and Pre-Operative Evaluations. There is a small fee for some of these. Some of these do necessitate an appointment.

No. I see patients by appointment only. We make every effort to see patients within 24-48 hours of contacting us.

Apologies, but we do not do these (thankfully, the need for this does not come up very often). If this is an absolute necessity, we can refer to a Specialist office for help with this process.

If you’re running a few minutes late for an appointment, please let us know. If you are running more than 20 minutes late, we will need to reschedule. We do ask that patients not arrive more  than 10 minutes early for an appointment. If you are our first patient at 9AM, please be aware that we do not open prior to this.

When medically appropriate, we perform certain tests/procedures (EKG’s, Pulmonary Function, Blood Draws, Skin Procedures, etc). We do our best to see that your health plan covers these things. However, in the event of non-payment or partial payment, you will be financially responsible. You have the right to decline any testing I recommend. It is ultimately your responsibility to understand what your insurance does and does not cover. We can perform blood draws here for patients on certain health plans. We do this on a walk in basis Monday through Thursday 9AM to Noon (be well hydrated and take your medications prior). These specimens are sent to Labcorp for processing. This includes urine specimens (can be obtained here in the large building restroom or at home via a sterile collection container that is given to you). Labcorp may or may not be your health plan’s preferred laboratory provider and it is your responsibility to know this. At your discretion, I can arrange for a lab order that you take to an outside lab facility. For most appointments, we will arrange for testing beforehand. For new issues/ Physicals, we will arrange for testing that day. Radiology/Imaging is ordered at an outside facility (usually at Simonmed or wherever you have had previous imaging…you will need to verify that whoever we use is in network with your health plan). We are not able to perform blood draws/labs for other health care providers.

I do a fair amount of Dermatology (removal of skin tags, pre-cancers, biopsies, etc) as part of my practice, so much that we have dedicated days throughout the month for this.

If you chose a health plan that requires specialist referrals you will need to be seen here prior to sending one if it is the first time seeing the specialist, the first time we are doing the referral, or if an existing referral has expired. Please give us up to 3 business days to complete the referral.

We only accept cash or check.

We have one medical billing specialist who works from home, Darlene. She is available to help via telephone should billing issues arise so I can just focus on Medicine.

We ask for 24 hours notice.  If this is not given, we reserve the right to charge 40 dollars for a missed office visit and 80 dollars for a missed Physical/Wellness Exam.

There is a 25 dollar rebilling fee for amounts 30 days past due….amounts 60 days or more past due subject the patient to termination from the practice.

There is a large, well appointed Restroom within feet of our office