Policies and Procedures

Foothills Family Practice honors your choice of entrusting to us you and your family’s healthcare. In order to help us serve you it is important that our patients understand our Policies and Procedures.

After Hours:

We provide an after hours call return service for patients with healthcare emergencies. Please be aware that our providers do not have access to medical records and can only provide basic medical information. They can not diagnose or treat illnesses after hours. Providers are also unable to refill prescriptions after hours.

Appointment Cancellations:

Missed appointments not canceled within 12 hours will incur a $25 charge. Missed thirty minute appointments for procedures or physicals not canceled within 12 hours will incur a $50 charge. Patients who need to reschedule their appointment due to excessive delays at our office will not be charged a missed appointment fee.

Billing & Insurance:

It is ultimately the patient’s responsibility to make sure that we are compensated for the services we provide to you and your family. As a service to our patients, we will submit a proper medical insurance claim once per visit on your behalf. Please bring your insurance card with you for every visit. We will re-copy it periodically and ask you to initial it as your authorization to us that it is current. Please be aware that it is each patient’s responsibility to make sure that we have your most current valid address and insurance information on file.  If we properly submit your claim with the information you provide us, and it is denied, you will be responsible for paying all charges incurred and for submitting a corrected medical claim to your insurance yourself. Because of the time and expense required to submit insurance claims, we can not re-bill insurance carriers as a result of patients providing us with incomplete or incorrect information.

Cell Phones:

As a courtesy to other patients and staff we ask that cell phones be turned off prior to entering the building.

Collections:

Patients who disregard their balance with us for 90 days will have their account turned over to a collections bureau. Patients in collections need to pay their balance in full and will be asked to seek future medical care elsewhere.

Conduct:

Patients and their family members are required to maintain acceptable conduct at all times. Any patient who is disrespectful of any staff member or other patient will be asked to leave the practice and seek future medical care elsewhere. Any verbal or physical threat, no matter how small, will be reported to law enforcement and have appropriate charges filed. Parents are responsible for the conduct of their children. Children under the age of 13 can not be left alone in the waiting room or children’s room. Children should not be excessively noisy or disruptive to other patients.

Co-pays:

Insurance co-pays are required to be paid at check-in. We can not bill co-pays.

Patient Past Due Balances:

Patients with a past due balances on their account are required to pay their balance in full prior to receiving future service. A past due balance is defined as any balance which has been invoiced to the patient 30 days prior.

Patient Invoices:

All invoices sent to patients are expected to be paid in full promptly upon receipt. Patients who disregard their invoice with us will receive one warning invoice prior to having their account turned over to a third party collections company. Patients in collections will be discharged from the practice and asked to seek future treatment elsewhere. Discharged patients are still responsible for paying all account balances plus late charges, collection and legal fees. Invoices that our patients believe have an error can always be appealed in writing for immediate review.

Payment Plans:

Foothills Family Practice expects all services to be paid in full at time of service. Foothills Family Practice does not accept payment plans unless they are arranged in writing with the billing office prior to services being rendered. Payment plans never extend past four monthly quarterly payments. Patients who fail to make their agreed upon payments on time will have their account sent to collections and will be asked to seek future medical care elsewhere.

Phone Calls with Providers:

Phone calls with providers can incur charges if they provide more than a basic level of information. If your provider needs to make medical decisions, interact with other medical professionals, facilities or make medical notes in your chart while on the phone then charges will be incurred. Please note that many insurance plans do not reimburse for phone consultations. In these cases it will be the patient’s responsibility for all charges incurred. Many insurance carriers prefer that you make an appointment and meet face to face with your provider.

Prescription Refills:

For fastest service, prescriptions refills (including prescriptions with “zero refills”) should be conducted through your pharmacy. Your pharmacy will contact us and your provider will either refill the prescription or notify you that they require an office visit. Please allow up to seven days for refill requests. We can not refill prescriptions for patients who have past due balances.

Referrals:

Referrals to other specialists can be time consuming as often times insurance authorizations require the review of medical records before an appointment can be made. While we will do everything we can to assure a fast and smooth referral process, it is ultimately the patients’ responsibility to verify with their insurance carrier that any services rendered by other specialists are authorized and covered.

Returned Checks:

Patients whose checks are returned will incur a $20 returned check fee and will lose future check writing privileges.

Tests with Outside Labs:

Our providers will occasionally need to send blood or tissue samples to an outside lab so that we can obtain specialized tests. In these cases we will pass on your current insurance and demographic information and you will be billed separately by these medical service companies.

Third Party Billing:

We regret that we can not bill any third parties (employers, landlords, people who caused injury, etc) for services rendered as we have no way to know that they will compensate us for services provided to you. We will submit a claim to valid health, auto and workers compensation insurance carriers whom we have contracts with only.

Wait Times & Appointments:

Our providers put quality patient care ahead of schedules. Sometimes this means that our patients have to wait if their provider has gotten behind with an unexpected complication or a complex condition to diagnose and treat. Please note that while we will do all that we can to reduce our patients’ wait times, it is often unavoidable in quality “patient first” healthcare. A temporarily idle staff member is probably not affecting your wait time as our providers’ will see each patient in order of appointment time (or sometimes severity). Each provider will have several different patients in exam rooms at any given time- some of which can have complex and potentially life threatening conditions. Our staff will be happy to assist you as best as they are able in determining your wait time. Due to circumstances outside of our control it is possible that we might need to request that a patient see a different provider other than the one they are scheduled with.