PriMed Patient Guidelines

Scheduling Appointments: When you need an appointment, we ask that you call our office directly. Our receptionist will take your basic information and will ask you the reason for your visit. This is important information so that we can schedule enough time for your appointment with the doctor. If you find that there are other issues you’d like to discuss during your appointment, we ask that you call us back and review that information with the receptionist to ensure that you have enough time with the doctor. Otherwise, your doctor may ask you to make another appointment to review any additional non-urgent issues.

Registration: Please plan to arrive for your appointment early. At every visit, you will be asked to present your insurance card and verify your address and phone number. While this may seem like an inconvenience, we’ve found that often the insurance companies make slight changes to the coverage that are important for us to know. Please be prepared to present this information to the receptionist upon checking in for your appointment. Our goal is to have you in the exam room and prepared to see the doctor at your scheduled appointment time. Please plan to arrive 10-15 minutes prior to your scheduled appointment to complete any necessary paperwork.

Referrals: If the doctor wants to send you to a specialist or outpatient facility, we ask that you call your insurance company to find out if you need a referral or prior authorization. If it does, please call us with the following information: patient name, date of birth, home phone number, name of primary care physician, name of specialist or facility, appointment date, reason for appointment, name of insurance company, and whether the referral will be picked up or request to mail to patient’s home address. We require 72-hour advance notice for referrals.

Office Charges and Copays: PriMed Physicians participates in a large number of insurance plans and Medicare. Please contact your insurance company to verify that your services will be covered at our office. Each visit, we will ask for a copy of your insurance card. Using this information, we will file a claim with your insurance company for the services provided in our office. We require that any insurance copayment you have be made at the time of service. We will collect your copayment after your appointments. If you do not have insurance, your visit will be your responsibility, and payment in full will be due at the time of service. If, for some reason, you are not able to make payment in full, a minimum payment of $50 will be required. For your convenience, we accept cash payments, personal checks, Visa and MasterCard. If your copayment or minimum payment is not paid at the time of service, PriMed Physicians reserves the right to assess a $10.00 fee to your account.

After Hours Care: In the event that you need care after hours or on weekends, PriMed has physicians available. Please phone the office and listen for information on having the on-call physician or on-call nurse paged. Please understand that the physician on call will not call in routine medication refills, except in extraordinary circumstances.

Treatment of Minors Policy: Patients under the age of 18 must have a parent/legal guardian present to complete initial paperwork and treatment consent. All minors must have written parental consent with each subsequent office visit, even if they are accompanied by an older sibling, babysitter or grandparent. Without parental consent, the child’s appointment will have to be rescheduled. A parent/legal guardian or another adult with the parent’s consent must be present when injections/vaccinations are given.

Medications and Refills: If you are on regular medications, you may need refills. When our physicians see you in the office, he/she will generally write your prescription with a certain number of refills to hold you over until your next visit. Follow-up appointments to monitor your progress on these medications are very important. Usually, running low on your medication indicates you need to schedule your appointment so that you do not run out prior to being seen. If you are not due for a follow-up, please request a refill well in advance. We require a 48 hour minimum notice for refills.

When calling about refills, please have the following information ready: patient name, date of birth, home phone number, pharmacy phone number, name of medication, dosage (milligrams, etc), directions on use (times per day taken, etc), and prescription number, if applicable.

Missed Appointment Guideline: We realize that circumstances may cause you to arrive late or miss an appointment. PriMed asks that you call the office at least 24 hours in advance in cases where you know that you are unable to keep your appointment. Please call us as soon as you know you will be late. If you arrive 15 minutes late or more without advance notice, you may be asked to reschedule.

If you repeatedly miss appointments without giving us advance notice, you may be charged $20 or more for the missed appointment time. A pattern of missed appointments may result in your dismissal from PriMed Physicians. If you are a new patient and you miss your first scheduled appointment without prior notification or significant extenuating circumstances, you will not be accepted into any of the PriMed offices for future appointments.

Billing Office: If you have questions or concerns about your bill or need to set up payment arrangements, please feel free to contact our billing office directly at 937-312-8111.

Release/Transfer of Medical Records: PriMed charges a fee for the duplication, transfer, and release of a patient’s medical record. This fee covers the cost of the duplication and any applicable postage to forward those medical records. Prior authorization form from the patient is required before any copies are released. PriMed’s fee guideline for the transfer of records is in accordance with Ohio Revised Code 3701.741.

Charges are as follows:

• $15.00 labor charge
• All Pages - .20 cents per page
• Maximum charge per patient $30.00
• The $15.00 labor charge is waived for additional family members within the same office.
• Only the last two years of the record will be copied unless you indicate otherwise at which time additional charges may apply.

After receiving your authorization for release/transfer of records you will receive a letter totaling the cost for transfer. Upon receipt of your payment, PriMed will forward a copy of the last two years of your medical record to the physician/facility you have designated.