Please take a minute to look over our office policies, so that you can have a better understanding of what to expect while you are our patient.
All of our physicians are board certified in neurology, which encompasses the diagnosis and treatment of disorders of the brain, spinal cord, nerves and muscles. Neurology is a rapidly changing field, and our physicians are constantly working to stay up-to-date. However, our physicians do not practice general medicine. We ask if you do not already have a general medical physician that you get one, so that other medical issues outside of your neurologic condition can be appropriately cared for by a doctor who is current in those disorders.
We make a particular effort to see patients at their scheduled appointment times. As we are primarily a consultative neurology practice, we are not staffed or scheduled to handle walk-in patients. We therefore ask that you do not "walk-in" without an appointment with the expectation of being seen, as this will make all later patients have to wait on their physician. True emergencies should be handled in the emergency room, where the ER physician can contact your neurologist once the situation is assessed. If you have a situation that needs urgent attention we ask that you call the office, often we can find a spot open to work you in as a scheduled patient, or resolve the situation with a phone call.
Co-pays and deductibles are due at the time of service. We will bill your insurance for you. In all other situations, be prepared to pay in full at the time of your visit, unless other arrangements are made ahead of time with our staff. We accept cash, checks or credit cards. Failure to pay your balance in a timely manner will result in submission of your account to collections and dismissal from the practice. Please make sure that you update us if your insurance information, address, phone number or e-mail address changes, so we can update our records and appointment reminder system.
Always bring a list of your current medications to your appointment, particularly if you are seeing multiple physicians. Currently we are able to view radiology images (MRI, CT, etc) electronically from Watauga Medical Center, Cannon Memorial Hospital, Ashe Memorial Hospital, Wilkes Regional Medical Center, and Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center (if we have adequate time to request the latter two facilities). If you have radiology studies pertinent to your case from other facilities, please bring these studies (preferably on computer disc) to your appointment. Always make sure to collect your radiology studies after review by our physicians, as our office cannot be responsible for storing these images and will shred them after a period of time if not collected by patients.
If you need a refill on your prescriptions we ask that you contact your pharmacy, who will get in touch with us. Medication refills are only handled during office hours on weekdays. Requests for medication refills after appointment no-shows or repeated rescheduled appointments will result in a charge of $15 per request. If you need to cancel or re-schedule an appointment, please call at least 24 hours in advance as a courtesy to other patients, so we can fill that appointment and keep our waiting time down for everyone. If you are not able to keep your appointment due to poor weather conditions or a personal emergency, please call and let us know. Repeated no-shows for appointments will result in dismissal from the practice. Please note that a $25 charge will be assessed for no show appointments.
We will fill out insurance and other forms (DMV, disability) pertinent to your care. Allow 7 business days for completion of most forms. We charge $10-15 to complete most forms of this type. Copies of your medical records result in a $12 charge, unless unusually large (may be higher). We can provide a copy of your medical records in an electronic format (you provide data CD, memory stick, etc. for a charge of $5). We do not charge a fee to forward pertinent records to other physicians collaborating in your care.
In the event of inclement weather, please check our office phone after 7:45 AM the day of your appointment. If we are unable to open or will open late due to our employees not being able to safely get to work, we will leave this on the recording, as well as when we will attempt to reopen the office. You can also check www.booneweather.com for an announcement if we have to close the office due to weather.
If there is a question about the charges for your visit, our staff is available to explain our fee schedule. Our billing is done by Antworks in Lynchburg, Virginia. If you have a question about billing on your account, please contact them initially at 1-877-589-7851.
