Managed Care
Most of our patients are covered under a Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) plan. First, be certain the doctor you are seeing is on your “plan”. Do not rely on the booklet you received from the company to be accurate. Doctors are being added and deleted almost daily. Check with our receptionist- she should be able to tell you if our doctors are or are not on your plan. If you are changing to a different PPO it is best to check with all your current doctors, to be certain they are on the plan, before enrolling.
Some of our patients are covered under a Health Maintenance Organization (HMO). HMO’s require patients to have a referral from their primary care physician prior to seeing a specialist. There is a good reason for this- it prevents patients from seeing specialists for minor problems that can very adequately be handled by the primary physician. This helps keep the overall expense of health care down, and is a policy we support in most cases. The problem with this is that we are not allowed to see a patient without the referral. If you come to the office without a referral you cannot be seen. Please realize that this is a “rule” we were given when we signed up to be on the insurance plan, and is not something that anyone in our offices can do anything about. Therefore, please be certain you have a referral with you before you come to the office. If there is going to be a delay in obtaining one, we would rather reschedule your appointment than inconvenience you by having you come in only to be informed that you cannot be seen because the referral has not been obtained. If there is any part of this you do not understand, please talk to one of our office managers. They will be glad to assist you.
