Our Policies
Office Hours
Our offices are typically open from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm, Monday through Friday. Offices may be closed at lunch. Routine calls for information and appointments can only be addressed during these office hours.
Appointments
We try to see patients in a timely fashion to minimize any inconvenience to our customers. Unfortunately, the practice of orthopedic surgery involves the care of many emergency situations. When these issues come up unexpectedly, it can cause our appointments to be seen after the scheduled time. If we are running behind on the day of your appointment and you prefer not to wait, we will be happy to reschedule your appointment and attempt to make this as convenient for you as possible.
If you are coming for an appointment for yourself and you are the parent of a small child, please try to avoid bringing them with you for your visit. Discussing your health problems, performing an appropriate physical exam, and/or obtaining x-rays is often difficult with small children present. You may want to consider bringing another responsible adult who can watch your children while you are with the physician.
We request that you cancel with at least 24 hour advance notice if you are unable to keep your scheduled appointment. This will allow us time to schedule someone else in your place.
Patient Forms
To accept a new patient, we must collect a significant amount of information from you. We need to have you fill out forms pertaining to personal identification, insurance, and your medical history. We apologize for the inconvenience, but this information is necessary for your medical evaluation. We can mail or fax these forms to you ahead of time if you would like, so that you can have them ready when you arrive for your appointment. We also have these forms available online for you to print and fill out.
Emergency Calls
If a serious or life threatening emergency occurs, please call 911 or go immediately to the nearest emergency room. Contacting one of our physicians by phone after hours may take some time. If you are seriously concerned about your medical condition, please call 911 or go immediately to the nearest emergency room. If you need to talk to one of our covering practitioners please see the section below.
Telephone Inquiries
Telephone calls for urgent issues will be taken 24 hours a day. Please call the regular office number 770.963.6300. If the call is made during business hours our staff will assist you directly. If you call after office hours, you will be referred to our answering service, and a covering practitioner can be paged if necessary.
If a serious or life threatening emergency occurs, call 911 or go immediately to the nearest emergency room. Please see the section above. Our staff has been trained to handle all incoming calls and determine the nature and urgency of your problem. This allows our physicians to care for office patients with minimal interruptions. Please make all non-emergency calls during office hours.
Patients should not expect to speak directly with a physician over the telephone. Direct conversation with a physician will usually require that you schedule an appointment to come into the office.
Prescription Refills
Calls for prescription refills should always be made during office hours, and before 2:00 PM. This will allow our staff to arrange for reasonable refills to be processed by the end of the office day after 5:00 PM. Requests for prescriptions called in after 2:00 PM on a regular business day will typically not be called in until the next day. Please have your pharmacy number readily available. Our staff will not call in any prescription refill without first consulting with one of our physicians for approval.
Absolutely no medication refills will be called in on the weekends or after business hours.
Fees and Insurance
Charges for medical services are due and payable at the time of service. Our fees are within the customary range for the Atlanta metro area and Gwinnett County. We will be happy to answer any questions about our services or fees.
We have contracts with many insurance companies and managed care organizations, and we will typically file claims for all services under these programs. To find out if our offices accept your insurance plan, please check our Accepted Insurance Plans. The only absolute way to know if your insurance will cover your to visit us, is to contact your insurance company directly.
Please be prepared to pay co-payments and/or deductibles at the time of service. Cash, checks, Visa, American Express, Discover and Master Card are accepted.
Insurance companies often request information describing an injury before they will reimburse our office for your treatment. If this applies to you, we would expect your cooperation in providing them the requested information as soon as possible. We will be happy to answer any questions or assist you in this process as necessary.
Remember that your insurance coverage is a contract between you and your insurance company, NOT an agreement between you and our office. Charges approved by insurance companies are sometimes less than our fees. Unless you are on a managed care plan with which we contract, you may be responsible for the difference.
Patients Without Insurance
Our office will accept injured patients who do not have health insurance coverage. Self-pay patients can expect to be asked for a deposit of $400.00 before being seen, and they will responsible for any charges incurred above that amount, at the time of service. Our typical physician evaluation with x-rays will typically cost $300.00 or more. Patients without health insurance coverage will also be required to pay a deposit ahead of time for any planned surgery, usually consisting of at least 50% of the expected charges.
We are aware of certain community resources which may assist patients in getting their expenses covered, and we will be happy to provide you this information. Actual application for these assistance programs are the full responsibility of the patient.
Auto Accidents and Liability Cases
Our office will occasionally accept patients who have been injured and expect their medical costs to be covered by car insurance or a third party liability settlement. Since we have no guarantee of payment from these sources, we expect payment of our billed charges to be made at the time of service, under the above guidelines for patients without insurance. Any insurance or liability settlement which may occur can then be paid to the patient. In some cases where we have confirmation from a reliable insurer or attorney, we will see liability patients without up-front payment.
Confidentiality
All of your medical records, office notes, and correspondence are absolutely confidential. Information will be released to your spouse or family members with your written permission only. Family members are, of course, welcome to accompany you on your visits here if you wish. Reports concerning your health will not be released without your written authorization. Under Georgia State Code, your record may be accessed by an attorney requesting information for any legal suit that you may be involved in.
Foreign Languages
Please be sure to bring an English-speaking person with you to an appointment if you speak only a foreign language. We do have some practitioners who speak reasonable Spanish. Even so, we still recommend bringing a bilingual person with you if possible.
Es necessary que alguien quien puede hablar ingles viene a nuestra oficina con usted para su cita.
Surgery Patients
All arrangements for your surgery will be made by our scheduling staff, including any pre-certification for insurance that is necessary. Your help with this process will be appreciated. Prior to your surgery, we will explain as fully as possible what you can expect to experience. Please do not hesitate to ask any questions you might have. Once you have been discharged from the hospital, please call if you have any questions or worrisome symptoms. Specifically, be sure to call if you experience excessive pain, fever, wound redness, or incision drainage. You may call at any time for these issues and the physician on call will be contacted.
Medical Records
Our office must charge a fee for copies of medical records. A great deal of time and resources are spent dictating, transcribing, and filing these records. Additional time and resources are spent in retrieving and copying them. If you need your records to see another physician, we will supply a small number of pages free of charge as a service to our patients. We do not release records without your signed authorization. We will also be happy to mail or fax your pertinent records to other treating physicians.
Personal Forms
Many of our patients request that we fill out forms for them. Such forms are often related to personal disability issues and/or missed work. Please understand that these issues do not directly involve our practice, and they are not part of your medical care. Our office must charge for the time and resources it takes to complete these forms. We will try to complete them in a timely fashion, but you will typically need to wait several days for forms to be completed.
Tests and Hospital Admissions
If you need to be scheduled for tests at other facilities, our staff will help with the necessary arrangements. Please be aware that your insurance plan may limit the facilities you may use to those that they contract with, so the facility that you must use may not be the one we recommend, or the most convenient. Please understand that this is completely beyond our control. We will do everything possible, within those limitations, to schedule procedures at your convenience. We may need your help with pre-certification of your test, and again, we request your cooperation.