COVID-19 RESPONSE PLAN

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR YOU: Most office visits will be performed via telemedicine with your physician at the regularly scheduled time. A telemedicine visit is the best and most appropriate means of receiving care from your doctor without having to put yourself and your family at risk by traveling to a healthare facility during the COVID-19 crisis. Similar to a face-to-face visit, the telemedicine visit will provide you the opportunity to update the doctor on any items pertinent to your health since your last visit, review any current symptoms you may be having, and review results of recent testing that you have completed. During the COVID-19 crisis, insurance companies, including Medicare, are covering telemedicine visits the same as an in-office visit.

WHAT TO EXPECT: You will be contacted by a member of the staff 2-3 days prior to your regularly scheduled visit to discuss how the telemedicine visit will take place. We respectfully ask that you wait for us to contact you in order to limit the volume of in-coming calls at this time. Presently we are utilizing a variety of telemedicine options including FaceTime, Skype, Zoom and other virtual platforms. As it is not feasible to do procedures remotely, routine follow up ultrasounds may be rescheduled. Patients receiving injections for osteoporosis will be provided with dates that the drug is being administered in the office to allow them to stay on track with their therapy. If you have an urgent issue that you feel cannot be addressed effectively via a telemedicine visit, please inform the staff and they will consult with your doctor so that you receive appropriate care. To protect all patients and our medical team, if you or anyone in your family has a cough, sore throat, fever, or any flu-like symptoms and you are scheduled to come into the office for any reason (including laboratory testing), please contact the office immediately to reschedule your appointment. Furthermore, if you believe you could have been exposed to the virus, we kindly request that you reschedule your appointment.

LABORATORY TESTING: Our lab remains open to any of our patients who need blood work done prior to an upcoming visit with one of our doctors. As is our usual policy, we cannot accept lab orders from outside doctors. Our lab hours are as follows:

Mon, Tues, Thurs: 8:30 AM - 3:00PM
Fri: 8:30AM - 1:00PM
Wed: Closed

PAYMENT OPTIONS: As with your in-office visits in the past, your telemedicine visit will be submitted to your insurance company for processing. Insurance companies, including Medicare, are covering telemedicine visits the same as an office visit under the current circumstances. After your telemedicine visit, you may be contacted by our billing department to collect any applicable payments. Payment options will include:

• credit card payments processed securely over the phone
• checks sent by mail