For your convenience we have listed our policies and procedures. Each policy will give you a detailed description of our responsibility to you as well as your responsibility as our patient. If at anytime you have questions, please feel free to ask one of our staff members for clarification.
If you are a new patient to our practice, please arrive 30 minutes prior to your scheduled appointment. Upon your arrival, please check in at the front desk. At your first visit, you will be asked to do the following:
- Complete a patient registration form
- Complete a medical history form
- Present your insurance card
- Acknowledge receipt of our Notice of Privacy Practices
- Sign an authorization to release confidential health information
- Present your photo ID
If you are a returning patient, please arrive 15 minutes prior to your scheduled appointment. At your return visit, our staff will confirm your name, address, telephone numbers and your insurance information to ensure our records contain the most current information.
Well Child Visits, School Physicals and Annual Appointments
We encourage our patients to plan in advance for routine annual exams, as these can take several weeks to schedule. Families with children are encouraged to contact our office in the spring to begin scheduling upcoming school and sports physicals to ensure that children are seen before the start of the school year. Follow-up well child examinations should be scheduled before you leave the office to ensure that your child is seen in the appropriate time frame.
Our providers are unable to provide treatment to unaccompanied minors without written permission from a parent or guardian. For your convenience, we have attached an easy to fill out form that will provide us with the necessary permission to treat them in your absence. Please print and fill out the Authorization for Treatment of Minors form and present it to the front desk staff at the scheduled appointment.
Late arrivals create delays for both physicians and other patients. Late arrivals may be asked to reschedule their appointments for an alternate time. Please recognize that we make every effort to see you as promptly as possible, however, emergencies may arise, delaying your scheduled appointment time. Our staff will notify you upon your arrival if a significant delay is anticipated.
A 24-hour notice is required for all cancellations. Please contact our office directly during normal business hours to cancel or reschedule your appointment. Note that our answering service will not take messages regarding appointment cancellations.
Although we understand that there are times when extenuating circumstances prohibit you from keeping a scheduled appointment, repeated missed appointments or cancellations with less than 24-hours notice will result in a charge billed to you. This amount cannot be billed to your insurance company.
Failure to keep scheduled appointments prohibits us from attending to and caring for you properly. Patients who miss three appointments in a 12 month period may be discharged from our practice.
If you have an HMO or POS insurance plan, you will be required to obtain a referral prior to seeing a specialist or having certain testing done in your primary care physician's office. Referrals to specialists or for testing typically take 5-7 days for our office to process and for the insurance company or medical group to approve. Emergent referrals can be processed and approved within 24 hours. Once your referral has been approved, you will be contacted and asked to pick up your referral at our office. At your request, we can also fax your referral to the specialist office or testing facility.
In many cases, a copy of the specialist physician's office/consult notes, findings, and recommendations must accompany our referral request. As part of the referral process, our referral coordinator will contact your specialist's office to request copies of this information. If we do not receive the information within 48 business hours, we will contact you to request your assistance in obtaining the necessary documentation from the specialist to process your referral request.
At Rush Copley Medical Group we make every effort to keep medical care costs down for our patients. In our effort to provide you and your family with excellent healthcare, we ask that you assist us in this process by providing timely and accurate information regarding your account. We ask each of our patients to review and sign this policy each year so as to establish the foundation of mutual understanding and expectation.
Time of Service Payment
Payment is required at the time services are rendered unless other arrangements have been made in advance. This includes applicable co-payments and coinsurance for participating insurance companies. Based on the contracted agreement in place with your insurance company, co-payments will not be billed to you; this payment is required prior to the medical visit. Should you arrive for a non-emergent appointment and do not have your co-pay with you, you will be asked to reschedule that visit. For your convenience we accept cash, check, debit and credit cards for payment.
Also, please be aware that patients with an outstanding balance must make arrangements for payment prior to scheduling a non-emergent appointment. Patient accounts that are over 90 days overdue are considered delinquent and may be transferred to a collection agency.
Patient Payment and Payment Arrangements
Patients who have coverage limitations or fail to provide Rush Copley with adequate billing information, including proper managed care authorization/referrals, are responsible for the total payment of their bills. For your convenience we provide short-term, as well as long-term payment plans. Any payment arrangement, other than payment in full must be approved in order to keep your account from being considered past due. If you have any questions or need to make payment arrangements to resolve your account, please call the Central Billing Office at (630) 978-4990 for assistance.
Self-Pay
Patients who do not have healthcare insurance or are unable to provide satisfactory proof of insurance are required to pay 100% of the charges at the time of the visit. Payment is required at time of service; however, we do offer a 15% self-pay discount (applicable to the office visit portion of your bill. For clarification of what services the discount may be applied to, please ask your practice service representative.
Please allow 5-7 business days for the completion of any paperwork (such as FMLA, return to work, return to school, etc.) requiring physician review and completion. Forms should be brought to your visit. Forms requiring completion outside of a scheduled appointment may incur a charge - please check with practice staff as to the cost. You will be notified when forms are ready for pick up. Thank you.
Medications are ordered for a specific reason and time period based on your medical condition under you physician’s plan of care. Proper follow-up office visits and often lab tests are needed to make sure your medications are right for you. Most chronic medical conditions require office visits at least every 6 months. We recommend receiving refills for your medications at your regular office visits. When this is not possible, refill requests will be reviewed with the following considerations:
- Do not wait until you are out of medication to request a refill.
- Refill request should be made directly to the pharmacy. Your pharmacy should contact our office electronically for refill authorization. This helps to verify the correct dose and frequency.
- Routine medications refills will be processed generally within 2 business days.
- Written medication refills (such as controlled substances) will be processed within 2 business days. These prescriptions often must be picked up at the office.
- Refills are usually processed during normal business hours Monday through Friday 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. A medication refill request after regular business hours cannot be filled using our on-call emergency system. Please plan ahead.
- Refills may be denied if proper medical follow up is not performed (office visits, labs, etc.).
Please consider contacting your pharmacy to verify that the prescription is ready for pick up.
Prior Authorization- Many insurance companies require prior authorizations for certain medication. This is individualized and dependent upon your insurance benefits. Our office will take every step to process these requests as quickly as possible; however, these requests may take up to 7 days or longer depending upon your insurance company’s prior authorization policy and approval.
Rush Copley Medical Group has a pediatric vaccination policy to help protect and encourage the wellness of our youngest patients. All patients born or establishing as a new patient on or after January 1, 2020, will be required to follow our vaccination policy in order to receive care at our Rush Copley Medical Group pediatric and family medicine practices.
Learn more about this policy