Patient Information

It is the desire of this office to provide our patients with the highest quality allergy care in the most friendly, efficient manner possible. Our Web site will endeavor to answer some of the questions most frequently asked by our patients.

The Allergy Evaluation

The purpose of the Initial Work-Up is to establish whether the symptoms are allergic in nature. A questionnaire has been sent which should be filled out in detail at home prior to the visit, consulting labels where appropriate and carried back with you (not mailed) to your first visit. The physician will take a thorough history, then a physical examination will be performed and appropriate laboratory studies and allergy testing will be initiated. A second visit will be scheduled to complete the allergy testing, to review the laboratory results and summarize the entire evaluation and formulate a plan to treat the problem. A full summary letter will be sent to your referring physician. Follow-up visits will be recommended periodically to facilitate the management of your problem.

PLEASE NOTE: It is necessary to refrain from taking any medication that contains ANTIHISTAMINE for 5 days prior to these two skin-testing visits. You should not stop any of your other medications, such as bronchodilators and inhalers for asthma, or medication for other conditions such as blood pressure, diabetes, thyroid, colitis, etc.

Appointments

Visits to our physicians are by appointment only. Except for emergencies, we attempt to see patients as close to the scheduled time. Due to unexpected problems, complications or emergencies we may fall behind schedule. We know your time is valuable, too. Please, only patients with a genuine emergency will be treated without an appointment.

Attention HMO and Managed Care Patients:

It is your responsibility to be sure we receive the necessary Referral Form from your Primary Care Physician. We cannot bill your insurance without this form. Your coverage here is not guaranteed without a proper referral form. You will be responsible to pay our bill yourself if we do not receive the referral form promptly.

Please, do not wait until the morning of your appointment to try to contact your primary care physician for the referral. We cannot delay your appointment as that would throw off our entire day’s schedule.

Cancellations

We have a very full schedule and a backlog of patients waiting to be seen. PLEASE, if you are unable to keep your appointment, let us know. We can put someone from our waiting list in your place. We expect to be notified at least 24 hours in advance if you cannot keep an appointment.

We have agreed with your insurance plan or your managed care provider to accept a significantly discounted fee in order to participate in their program and to be available to provide service to you. Despite these discounted fees, our costs to provide service continue to increase. We are caught in a very tight squeeze. Missed appointments result in lost revenue that is necessary to keep our office running.

Therefore, we now find it necessary to assess an administrative fee of $25 for any appointment that is broken, missed or canceled with less than 24-hour notice. It is likely that this fee is not a covered service by your insurance plan, leaving you responsible for payment.

A Word About Insurance Coverage

There are many new and different insurance plans available that it is impossible for us to keep up with them. Insurance is an arrangement between an individual and an insurance company (and sometimes an employer) to help that person pay for the cost of medical care. We are not always a party in this arrangement. Each plan has its own limitations on what and how much it covers. Due to variations in deductibles and co-payment requirements, insurance rarely covers the entire bill. It is the responsibility of the patient to know and understand the details of the insurance coverage.

Telephone Calls

NOTE: We cannot call you back if your line is blocked for caller ID. You must turn off your block while you expect a return call. Our call.

Routine calls to the physician during office hours will be returned as promptly as possible. Keep in mind that the physicians are busy with a full office schedule as well as emergencies. Calls are triaged and priority is given to those patients with serious problems. We get over 50 calls a day, often for prescriptions or questions that should have been addressed at the office visit.

The physicians have arranged an On-Call schedule to be available for emergencies 24 hours a day.

Please reserve this for true emergencies.
Prescription refills are not emergencies!

Our weekend On-Call schedule is shared with the practice of Drs. Twarog, Moody and Handelman, colleagues of ours from Children’s Hospital. One of the physicians in our practice is always on back-up call for hospital emergencies.

Prescription Refills

It is your responsibility to make sure you have an adequate supply of your medication. Running out of medicine is poor planning, but it is not an emergency. Please plan appropriately! The appropriate time to request a prescription renewal is during your office visit. If you find your supply is running low and you are not yet scheduled for a visit, please email a request to us. We will call the prescription in to your pharmacy as soon as we are able. Due to the administrative time and volume of calls, we cannot guarantee the pharmacy will get the prescription before 72 hours. Again, proper planning will avoid problems.

Note: Our office policy only allows prescription renewals by telephone or using the form below.if you have been seen by one of our physicians in our office within the previous year. If you are overdue for an appointment, we can only allow enough medication to last until your next schedule visit with the physician. You may always call your Primary Care Physician for a temporary renewal.

Note To Parents

We are experts at working with children. We have developed methods of performing our tests on children with minimum of traumatization and fuss. Our nurses will prepare your child and explain everything that will be done. It is neither necessary, nor helpful for you to try to prepare your child prior to the visit.

Please do not bring other children along for the visit. The evaluation will take a fair amount of time and will be boring for another child to sit through. A fussy child is very distracting and will interfere with your ability to concentrate on what the physician is discussing with you. You will not get much as you otherwise would out of the visit. Please arrange to leave other children with a baby-sitter, friend or relative. Thank you very much.

Note: Please do not bring food items such as cereal or crackers to occupy your child. Not only does it create a mess in the office when they become ground into the carpet, but it may obscure the physician’s ability to view the child’s throat on examination. Also, some patients in the office have severe allergies to some foods and exposure to these foods could cause a severe reaction.

School and Camp Forms

You may receive forms from your child’s school for permission to administer medication during school hours or for permission to play sports. While you may have one or two forms, we receive hundreds and hundreds of forms to complete. It takes hours for the physicians to complete these forms. Please help us by filling out the form as completely as possible so the physician has only to sign and date it. You likely know the name of the medication and when it is to be taken. Please enclose an address, stamped envelope if you wish us to return the form. The federal privacy laws prohibits us from faxing or mailing medical information to third parties. We con only send the information directly to the patient or parent. We greatly appreciate your assistance.

School Plans

Your child’s school may require an Asthma Action Plan, to provide guidance for the school nurse in proper medications to use if your child has symptoms in school. Most schools also require written Food Allergy Plans to guide the school personnel in handling a child’s sensitivity to food during lunch or snacks. These plans require thought and time to complete. Again, you receive one or two forms, we get hundreds. Please help us by bringing your forms along at the time of your visit. The more you are able to fill in, the quicker we will be able to get the form back to you. Again, we cannot fax or mail medical information to third parties. We can only send information directly to the patient or parents. We thank you for your assistance.