Appointments
We want to provide our patients with the best care possible and we cannot do so without your cooperation. We ask you to be on time for your scheduled appointments and to please call us at least 24 hours before if you need to cancel your appointment, so patients needing appointments can be called. If you do not provide us with notice of cancellation and miss your appointment, there will be a $150 NO SHOW fee charged to your account for well visits. Should there be 3 or more NO SHOW’s, it is at our office’s discretion to discharge a patient from our practice.
We have WALK IN HOURS specifically created for just sick visits in the morning from 8:30 am to 1pm Monday to Friday. To keep our doctor’s afternoon schedules running on time, we ask you to come in before 12:30pm. If you show up after 1pm, we will schedule you for a sick visit later on that same afternoon. We do not refill prescriptions prescribed by other providers, for example, ADHD medications.
Phone Calls
We receive a large number of phone calls everyday. To ensure that our sickest patients receive the appropriate, on time care, we ask you to please specify the reason for the call and if it is of an urgent nature, our doctors will speak to you right away and decide if the patient needs to be seen in the office that same day. For routine well child questions, non-urgent issues, or prescription refills, they will be returned and completed at a later time of the day. After hour answering service is reserved for our active, established patients only. New patients including newborns recently discharged from hospital will be able to use this service only after having been seen by our doctors in the office.
School and Camp Forms
For all school and camp forms, the standard wait time is 2 weeks and we charge $20 per form. Please submit them within a reasonable amount of time for completion. ALL expedited and “on the spot” forms are $10 additional. There will be additional fees if forms require extensive chart review. All letters besides lateness and missed school notes start at $50.
Etiquette
Disruptive and disrespectful behaviors are unacceptable at Pediatrics East. We are committed to having a professional, courteous, respectful, caring relationship with all of our patients and families. Any behavior or conduct that deviates from this standard has the potential to interfere and undermine the collaborative relationships that is essential to safe and effective patient care, which can result in dismissal from the practice.
Please take a moment to read our Office Policy form.
Prescription Refills
Medication refills are reserved for our established active patients. We will gladly refill chronic prescriptions such as asthma inhalers, Epipens, etc, as long as the patient is current on his/her annual health maintenance examination. Routine physicals are performed in accordance with American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations since medication dosage and frequency of use changes with a growing child. Therefore, we REQUIRE a current physical examination that is valid within a year in order to renew your medication. NO EXCEPTIONS ALLOWED.
COVID-19 Update for telephone calls
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed many things about how we, at Pediatrics East of New York, P. C., practice pediatric medicine. Our utmost priority has always been to ensure the health and safety of our patients and families. As your medical provider, keeping you home as much as possible to prevent our healthcare system from being overwhelmed has become part of our professional responsibility; this means we must provide a lot more medical care, virtually, than we have ever done before. While we have never charged families in the past for telephone/electronic consultations (medical advice, diagnosis, treatment, etc.), we have seen a tremendous influx in these visits since the start of COVID-19. Telephone care/email communication is an important tool to stay connected with our patients and families, especially in times where we are practicing social and physical distancing. Our doctors used to do 10-20 phone calls per week, but now are each doing over 50 calls per week. We are happy to meet the patient demand and provide essential service, but we must begin charging for this essential service to make it fiscally sustainable going forward.
As a result, we will be charging your insurance for telephone visits (including videos and pictures sent via electronic communication) with our doctors as it is part of telemedicine. Whether you have a cost share or not is determined by your insurance plan and policy. Please verify with your own insurance carrier for details. If you have questions about our policy, please contact our billing office at billing@pedsoneast.com. We appreciate your understanding and cooperation.