Patient Policies

Office Hours:

Our clinic is open Monday -Thursday, 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., Every 2nd and 4th Friday, 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Appointments:

We see patients by appointment only. New patient appointments are generally 60 minutes long and follow-up appointments are 15-30 minutes. Same day appointments are usually available for urgent or sudden illness. All new patient paperwork is required to be filled out and returned to the office one (1) working day before your scheduled appointment.

After Hours and Emergencies:

For a serious emergency, call 911 right away. We do not provide any after hour services; if you call our office before or after hours, you will reach our voice mail and will receive a response within one business day.

Urgent Need or Sudden Illness: 

We have a limited number of same day or “work-in” appointments available every day. Please call early in the day, as these spots fill up quickly. If there are no available appointments with your physician, the Front Office Coordinator will offer the earliest available appointment with the physician or transfer you to the medical assistant who will discuss your needs with a physician and determine what you should do.

Cancellations:

In order to be respectful of the medical needs of our patients please be courteous and call Innate Wellness & Medical Center promptly if you are unable to attend an appointment. This time will be reallocated to someone who is in need of treatment. This is how we can best serve the needs of our patients. If it is necessary to cancel your scheduled appointment, we require that you call one (1) working day in advance. Appointments are in high demand, and your early cancellation will give another person the ability to have access to timely medical care.

NO SHOW POLICY:

A “no show” is someone who misses an appointment without canceling it within one (1) business day in advance. No-shows inconvenience those individuals who need access to medical care in a timely manner. A failure to present at the time of a scheduled appointment will be recorded in your medical chart as a “no show”. An administrative fee of $75.00 will be billed to your account effective January 1, 2024. You will be sent a letter alerting you to the fact that you failed to show for a scheduled appointment and did not cancel the appointment within one (1) business day in advance along with the bill for the administrative fee. A copy of the letter will be placed in your medical record. Three (3) “no-shows” within one (1) calendar year will result in a temporary suspension of services. In order to reinstate services, you will be required to meet with your Physician within 30 days of the third no show letter to evaluate your situation. In the event you do not respond and/or schedule an appointment within 30 days, we will consider your patient status as terminated.

Running on Time:

We know your schedule is busy and that your time is valuable. Please let us know if you have waited more than 15 minutes. Please remember that we are running several different schedules. If someone who arrived after you is called before you, they might be having blood drawn or be receiving an IV or injection from our medical assistant. If the physician is running behind, we will do our best to give you advanced notice as well.

Treatment of Minors:

Patients under the age of 18 must be accompanied by a responsible adult or have written permission, for treatment, from a parent or guardian before the time of the appointment.

Labs Ordered by Other Physicians: 

 Routine and screening labs are a part of your ongoing care and necessary for proper evaluation of your current protocols. Compliance is necessary to ensure you are receiving the proper course of treatment and to allow for timely changes in medication, supplementation, and protocols. All patients that are taking any prescription medication (hormone replacement therapy, thyroid replacement, hypertension, blood sugar regulation, etc), being treated for nutritional deficiency/imbalances, and those receiving intravenous chelation are REQUIRED to repeat labs as requested by the physician every 3-6 months. Failure to complete labs as requested will result in interruption of your care and timely refills of current prescriptions. Your timely compliance is necessary and appreciated. Some lab work can be completed in our office- urinalysis, pregnancy testing, and rapid strep swabs. These tests are generally performed by the medical assistants and based upon presenting symptoms during your appointment. Other lab work is sent out to a local labs (Vibrant, Sonora Quest, LabCorp, etc.) or specialty labs accordingly. Usually, all blood drawn in our office is completed by our phlebotomist or the physician.

Test Results:

 If you have diagnostic testing, i.e., lab, x-ray, echo, ultrasound, sleep study, we will schedule a follow-up appointment to go over the results with you in person. In most cases, results are not given over the phone.

Nurse or Medical Assistant:

We often refer to staff that assist our providers as “nurses”. They definitely do help you and the doctors, and you probably think of them as nurses. But most of them are not technically “nurses” because they are not licensed by the state as an LPN or RN. Most are “Medical Assistants”. This means they have technical school or on-the-job training in providing medical assistance to the physicians. They take blood pressures, weigh you, ask about your symptoms, give injections, schedule tests, and call in prescriptions. They work under the direct supervision of the doctor.

Rx Prescriptions and Refills:

• The best time to get a prescription refill is at your appointment.

• If you need to call for refills, don’t wait until you have run out. Most refills require the doctor’s approval. If your doctor is out for the afternoon, it may be the next day (or Monday) before it can be authorized.

• Don’t go to the pharmacy to wait for your prescription to be called in. Call them first to see if it is ready.

• Refill requests called to us before 2:00 p.m. will be handled by the end of the next working day. After 2:00 p.m., it may be 1-2 working days before your request can be addressed. If you have an urgent need and need a refill expediently, an admin fee of $30 will be charged.

• Some medications have potential side effects that must be monitored. We require check-ups every 3 or 4 months for these medications. Be sure to keep those follow-up appointments.

• Some prescriptions cannot be called in. The prescription must be printed for you to pick up.

• Don’t call after hours for prescription refills. There is no access to your chart and we may not be able to help you.

Regarding any and all medications that are categorized as Anti-depressants, Anxiolytics, Hypnotics/Sleep Aids, and Narcotics: We do not prescribe these medications for chronic or long-term use. If you are requiring the use of these medications for longer than an acute period of time (3 months or less), you will be referred back to your Primary Care Provider or out to a specialist who will then manage and monitor your use and/or tapering schedule of these medications. There are many legislative changes being made in the state of Arizona and several more to come regarding the prescribing, monitoring, and ongoing evaluation of these types of prescription medications. Due to the increased labor/time demands and issues related ongoing concern of abuse and/or dependency of such drugs, our physician will no longer prescribe them effective January 1, 2017. If you require chronic use of narcotics, our physician will refer you to a pain management specialist.

Mail Order Prescriptions: 

Many insurance plans offer financial incentives for using mail order pharmacies. We are glad to print out prescriptions for your mail order pharmacy needs. You can pick these up at our office or we can fax or call in these mail orders for you.

Supplements, Herbal & Homeopathic Remedies: 

Routinely, nutritional supplements, herbal and homeopathic remedies will be used as a part of your treatment protocol. Our physicians have extensive training and knowledge of the application of these powerful and effective therapies to meet the individual needs of our patients. As a convenience, we do carry limited products in our office for our clients and do have an online medicinary for 24 hour/7 days a week access. We can also place special orders for clients by request. Due to the variance in quality of retail supplements and the vast number of brands available for consumer use, we only carry and recommend reputable brands and formulation, many of which are NSF Certified. The NSF certifies products against NSF/ANSI 173, the only American National Standard that establishes requirements for the ingredients in dietary and nutritional supplements. This helps to ensure product safety and efficacy (meaning the product contains therapeutic doses of the listed ingredients and does what it claims to do).

Referrals: 

 Referrals are handled by our physician. Sometimes this can be done on the same day as your appointment and sometimes it can take 5-7 days, depending on your case history, insurance and/or the urgency of your situation. Someone will contact you as soon as the referral has been sent. As a patient, it is your responsibility to ensure that your specialist is on your plan. Please understand that it can sometimes take weeks to months to get an appointment with a specialist. This is not something we have control over.

Dismissal:

If you are “dismissed” from the practice, it means you can no longer schedule appointments, get medication refills, or consider us to be your doctor. You have to find a doctor in another practice.

Common Reasons for Dismissal

• Failure to keep appointments, frequent no-shows

• Noncompliance, which means you won’t follow physician instructions about an important health issue

• Abusive to staff

• Failure to pay your bill

Dismissal Process: 

We will send a letter to your last known address, via certified mail, notifying you that you are being dismissed. If you have a medical emergency within 30 days of the date on this letter, we will see you. After that, you must find another doctor. We will forward a copy of your medical record to your new doctor after you let us know who it is and sign a release form. A COPY OF THIS FORM WILL BE PROVIDED AT YOUR REQUEST. PLEASE INFORM THE FRONT OFFICE COORDINATOR.