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 Attention Molina Health Plan members, effective June 1, 2010, our office will no longer participate with Molina Health Plan. Beginning May, 2010, you will be able to choose a Medicaid health plan that we do accept. However, you must make the change between May 1, 2010 and May 31, 2010. Click on the “Office” button above to find out more information. |
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Office, Policies: General Office Policies and Information By Office Staff 2/17/2010 |
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Welcome to our practice. We would like to enter into a long-lasting and mutually beneficial patient-physician relationship with you. Our goal is to provide you with expert, individualized and compassionate medical care. We want you to be able to be honest and open with us so that we may be partners in your care. We strongly believe that time must be spent in helping you understand your health problems and the strategies for dealing with them. But in order to prevent misunderstandings or surprises, you need to know our office policies. NEW PATIENTS At the present time we are taking new patients. If you are interested in becoming a patient, call our office and discuss your situation with us. We will see if we can help you. New patients are expected to schedule an initial appointment which usually also serves as a health maintenance exam (physical). If you have signed up under an HMO contract with us as your primary care physician, you must schedule an initial appointment. OFFICE HOURS Our regular office hours are: Monday through Thursday 9:00 AM to 4:30 PM Friday 8:00 AM to 2:00 PM Office hours sometimes change depending on conferences, meetings, vacations, and of course holidays. Our phones are answered during office hours except for lunch from 11:30 AM to 1:00 PM. Please be sure to listen to the recording that plays when the phone is not picked up for an up-to-date version of that week’s office hours. OFFICE APPOINTMENTS One of the most difficult issues in any office practice is to stay on time so that you do not need to wait too long to be seen. We will do our best to keep to our schedule and see you as close to your appointment time as possible, and often we do run on or very close to the scheduled times. We will attempt to call you before you arrive if we are running unusually late. You may also call us before leaving home or work to “see how we are doing.” You always have the right to cancel and (hopefully) reschedule if the wait is too long for you. We ask that in turn you be respectful of our schedule and keep your appointments with us. Patients that arrive later than 10 minutes after their scheduled appointment time without calling first usually need to be rescheduled. If you cannot keep your appointment, you must let us know beforehand. We consider repeatedly missing your appointments without calling to be grounds for dismissal from our practice. We do not want to be too rigid about the length of our appointments, that is, we want you to feel that your problems receive adequate attention when you are seen. However, we anticipate that most appointments will take from 5 to 15 minutes (unless for a “PAP”, complete physical, or a special exam). If you know beforehand that your appointment will require longer, please tell us when we schedule it so that we allow enough time. As a matter of fairness to others who have scheduled an appointment and are waiting to be seen, we will not generally be able to treat extra family members that come along with you for an appointment. If another person needs to be seen, please call in advance and we can usually make arrangements for them to be seen. If it is an emergency we will do our best to help you. If you have small children and are coming in for a complete exam (such as a PAP/physical exam) please bring someone with you to watch your children. Unfortunately, we do not have the available staff to perform this service. EMERGENCY CARE Generally every day we keep a small number of visits open to allow “work-in’s” of urgent conditions which need to be seen that same day. If you feel you need the use of those emergency appointments, you need to call as soon as possible after the office opens at 9:00 AM. However, if you were unable to do so, call us anyway and we will see what can be worked out. We feel it is our responsibility and will make every effort to accommodate a truly urgent condition. After hours, if you feel you have an urgent condition which should not wait until the office next is open, call Sheridan Community Hospital (989-291-3261) and ask for the emergency room. While they cannot give you medical advice (due to legal restrictions) the nursing staff there can assist you in either contacting me for approval to come to the ER/outpatient department or otherwise getting you assistance. Anytime after hours when you or a member of your family has a truly life-threatening condition (for instance, sudden chest pain, sudden shortness of breath, a significant laceration or injury, or sudden loss of function of any body part) go immediately to Sheridan Community Hospital (or whichever emergency room is most available to you). If you do not have someone to drive you and are not sure if you are strong enough to drive, call 911. If there is any doubt in your mind whether to go to the emergency room after hours or not, by all means go and the nursing personnel there will “triage” your condition (decide how serious it is) and call me for approval for treatment (if required by your insurance). The emergency room of Sheridan Community Hospital would never turn anyone away with a serious/urgent problem because of insurance or inability to pay. USE OF PHYSICIAN ASSISTANT Elizabeth Steinle PA-C (Certified Physician Assistant) has been working with Dr. Steury since 1993. She sees patients in our office primarily on Wednesday and Thursday. Dr. Steury primarily sees patients on Monday,Tuesday and Friday. If you are seen by Elizabeth, be assured that Dr. Steury is always available for Elizabeth to discuss complex cases and decide on treatment (on the occasions that Dr. Steury is out of town she is supervised by one of the other physicians at Sheridan Community Hospital). When you make an appointment you usually will be asked whether you have a preference as to which caregiver you see (Dr. Steury or Elizabeth). Some patients prefer one and some the other. Since Dr. Steury has less time in the office than Elizabeth the wait for an appointment will usually be longer if you wish to see him. If you feel you must be seen quickly you will usually be seen by Elizabeth because, once again, she has more appointment times available. If you have been seen by one caregiver in the past you may be seen by the other if it is convenient or your preference. HOSPITALS AND SPECIALISTS Dr. Steury is a member of the medical staff of Sheridan Community Hospital and serves in many capacities for that facility including Medical Director of Sheridan Hospital’s Outpatient and Emergency Department and the Board of Directors of the Hospital. If you have a medical condition which will require local hospitalization we would prefer that this be done at Sheridan Community Hospital. Unlike many area hospitals, if you are hospitalized Dr. Steury with the assistance of Elizabeth Steinle PA-C will manage your care and usually daily one or the other (sometimes both) will see you during your stay. If for some reason you prefer not to be hospitalized at Sheridan Community Hospital (or if your condition is too complex to be adequately treated here) our caregivers will help you select a physician at a hospital who will care for you. Sheridan Community Hospital as well as Dr. Steury and Ms. Steinle are affiliated with Carson City Hospital. However, you may be referred to specialists from any facility. Within the restrictions of your various insurances, you as a patient always have the final choice as to where and who treats you. FEES Office visits generally run from $30.00(for a very short nursing visit) to $200.00 for an extended physical on a new patient. The cost of most appointments is somewhere between these two extremes; for instance the cost of a routine 5 to 15 minute appointment for an established patient is $55.00. Our new patient examinations are extra due to the additional time that these appointments require. and these “new patient” fees are charged one time only. Tests or procedures are extra, depending on the complexity. If your appointment does unexpectedly take a longer amount of time than usual, we must out of fairness, charge for an extended visit. Please ask our office workers if you have questions about fees. Your insurance may cover part or all of these charges (see INSURANCE below). PRESCRIPTIONS We understand that there are times when you are ill and you cannot come to our office. We will, at our discretion, call prescriptions in for you on those occasions if you have been seen regularly (our criteria is usually that you have had a physical in the last one to two years depending on your age). Of course this depends on the symptoms you are having and whether any of those are ominous or new in nature. Routine ongoing medications may be refilled with a phone call if you have been seen regularly (we usually require patients who chronically take medications to be seen at least every 6 months so we can monitor them for side effects to the medications as well as the underlying condition(s) being treated). Some medications and/or conditions need to be monitored more frequently. Believe us, we do not wish to require you to be seen unnecessarily (we like to save appointments to get in those who are ill). We request that we have 24 hours notice for any prescription renewals. All prescriptions, even renewals, must be authorized by a caregiver (Doc or Elizabeth) and that involves pulling your chart and having them review your medication usage. It is impossible to do this while attempting to conduct office hours and it is not fair to patients who are waiting to be seen. INSURANCE We participate with a variety of health insurance plans including: Aetna Blue Care Network Blue Cross Blue Shield Blue Cross Blue Shield PPO Cofinity (PPOM) Health Plan of Michigan McLaren Medicaid Medicare Most all Medicare HMO's - Humana, Pyramid/Today's Options Molina (Until June 1, 2010) PHP Physicians Care/ASR Priority Health Priority Medicaid Priority Medicare Tricare United Healthcare Please ask our staff to confirm if Dr Steury participates with your health plan. Please have your insurance card with you when you come to the office. Most HMO plans and some PPO plans require our office to authorize referrals to other medical providers. It is up to you to know your insurance requirements and comply with them. However, insurances can be very confusing and if you are in doubt as to whether your insurance plan requires authorization or not, call Christine Skilling at our office. If you have an HMO or Medicaid HMO you will have a primary care provider, either one you chose or were assigned. We participate in 2 HMO's — Blue Care Net and Priority Health. For Medicaid patients, this office participates in Health Plan of Michigan, Priority Health Medicaid, and McLaren (and Molina until June, 2010). As primary care providers we must authorize any other care provided to our HMO and and Medicaid HMO's. If you belong to another plan or have another primary care provider, we cannot provide you with any services without an authorization/referral from that provider. This is not just our rule, this is the rule of the HMO's, Medicaid, and the State of Michigan. If you forget to bring your card or do not have an authorization for treatment, we will need to reschedule your appointment (unless, of course, it is an emergency). Payment of any part of your visit not covered by insurance is expected at the time of service unless previous arrangements have been made. We will be glad to submit your insurance claims for you but we request that you be considerate and pay the balance due within 30 days of a statement. All copays for HMO's and PPO's are due at the time of service. If you have any questions about this, please ask to see our insurance specialist Christine Skilling in our insurance office. | |||||||||||||||
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Thank you for visiting www.DocSteury.com! Welcome * Staff * Office * Health * Sheridan Community Hospital Events * Links of Interest * Feedback * Home * Webmaster Privacy Statement Medical Disclaimer The information provided in the Doc Steury's Office web page should be relied upon for medical education purposes only. It is not intended to replace the independent judgement of a health care provider. The appropriateness of a course of treatment for a patient may vary from the medical information provided herein due to individual conditions and/or complications. © Copyright 2002 - 2010, Dr. Ronald L. Steury, D.O., P.C., All rights reserved. 9058 visitors since February 21, 2002 |
