No Show & Late Patient Policy:

If you are unable to keep your scheduled appointment, please contact the office at as far in advance as possible so that we can schedule another patient in your time slot. There is a $50 fee if you no-show or fail to cancel your appointment within 24 hours of your scheduled time. Repeated no shows make it impossible to follow your disease properly and will likely result in your dismissal from the practice.

All patients should present to the office 10-20 minutes early. If you are more than 5 minutes later than your scheduled appointment time, we reserve the right to reschedule your visit. We do our best to stay on time out of respect to our patients, and late patients make that logistically very difficult.

Insurance:

Since we are a small office with limited staff, we cannot call each patient’s insurance company to ensure proper coverage.  It is your responsibility to call your plan prior to your appointment and ensure appropriate coverage for the office visit, ultrasound, labs, etc. The patient is responsible for their deductibles/co-payments when we agree to accept your particular insurance.  You must have your insurance card with you at the time your appointment.

As a courtesy and convenience to you, we will file claims for all services and procedures to insurance companies with whom we are contracted.  We will do our best to ensure that office visits and thyroid procedures are covered by your medical insurance, but sometimes your policy will not pay for services, testing, or medications that we feel are medically recommended.  Keep in mind that just because insurance lists a procedure as “covered,” it does not guarantee that the insurance company will pay for it.  And since insurance coverage rules change often, it is not possible for us to always know what your particular coverage may be.  We will do our best to appeal denials for payment if we feel a procedure is medically necessary, but if your insurance company continues to deny payment, you will be responsible for paying the unpaid medical bill(s).  Please acquaint yourself with your own policy and call your insurer regarding any coverage questions.

Self-Pay and Out-of-Network Policy

For patients without insurance, or for those who have insurance from companies that we are not contracted, we offer transparent and reasonably priced cash rates.  You will be responsible for full medical payment at time of care.  If you choose, we will provide a receipt of medical payment for your remittance to your out-of-network provider for possible reimbursement.  Please call our office for pricing details.

Payment & Debt Policies

1. Per insurance contracts, we have a responsibility to collect copays at the time of service.  If you are unable to pay your copay, we legally cannot proceed with the appointment and a $50 no-show fee will be added to your account.
2. Patients will be sent a statement for anything owed for your previous visits.  This is normally what is not paid by your insurance company after we submit charges to them.  These amounts are defined by our written contracts with your insurance company and/or by your specific insurance plan.  These statements are generally sent monthly and are expected to be paid promptly.  
3. After 2 months from the time of service and not receiving payment, our office will contact you for payment via phone and/or email.  If you are unable to pay the full amount or have questions about the amount billed, please call Debbi at our medical billing company (800-599-7183) to discuss setting up a payment plan which will allow you more time to pay.  For balances over $400 or more than 90 days old, we will not schedule any further appointments or provide further medical care (other than emergency care) until your balance has been settled.  After 3 statements that are unpaid (usually about 120 days from your visit), we will submit the case to a collections agency.  If this happens, all charges incurred by the collections agency will be passed on to the patient.
4. Starting October 1, 2019, your first billing statement will be free.  Each additional billing statements sent will add $2.00 to your account.
5. We do our best to be understanding with billing, however we have provided you a service, and we consider intentional non-payment as theft.  This will result in your dismissal from our practice.  If you honestly cannot pay for specialty medical care, even with a payment plan, we advise that you instead see your PCP, the local health department, or larger healthcare organizations who can possibly provide services at reduced costs.  

 Ultrasounds:

Due to the prevalence of thyroid nodules and cancer, and to assist with diagnosing thyroid disease, Dr. Henderson performs ultrasounds on most new patients, and thereafter as necessary.  It is your responsibility to know if your insurance covers an office-based ultrasound which is separate from the office visit.  If you do not want one performed, please tell the front desk, nurse, or Dr. Henderson.

Labs & Other Tests:

Lab orders are normally placed electronically, so you just need to show up at the appropriate lab with your picture ID.  By default, we use Labcorp or Quest for blood work.  If you prefer another lab, they don’t allow us to send orders or receive results electronically, so we have to use paper or fax.  We also have a Labcorp phlebotomist at our office on Tuesday & Thursday mornings.  If you’d like to use this service, please make an appointment on our website.

New Patients:

1. If you’ve had recent thyroid labs (in the last 1-2 months), they will be reviewed at the first visit.
2. Otherwise, we would like to have new blood work done 1-2 weeks before your first appointment. 

Established Patients:

1. Dr. Henderson usually orders new labs to be done about 1-2 weeks before you next appointment.
2. The results of these blood tests will be discussed at your upcoming appointment.  Please be patient and wait for your appointment to discuss these results.  If we see something that requires immediate attention, you will be contacted right away.

We see almost 180 patients per week. Therefore, it is impossible to respond to each result between appointments unless it is an emergency.  In certain circumstances, if a patient requires additional phone calls or requests special attention, they may be billed for a telephone consult which is usually an additional fee not covered by your insurance company.

HIPAA guidelines do not permit us to discuss your test results with friends or family members without formal notification. We never share your confidential information with unauthorized persons. As an added measure of security, if there is a specific individual or company that you specifically do not want us to discuss and/or disclose any part of your medical or health information with, please notify the office in writing.

Procedures Not Covered Policy

If we know in advance that a procedure is not covered by your medical insurance, we will ask you to sign an advanced beneficiary notice stating that your insurance doesn’t or may not cover it. You will be responsible for full medical payment at time of care.

 Payment at Time of Service

We accept the following payments, which are due at the time the service:

• New patients: Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, or cash. We do not accept personal checks.
• Established & return visits: Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, cash, or personal check.
• Out-of-pocket programs: Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, cash, or personal check.
• Products: Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, or cash. We do accept personal checks. Sales tax will be added.

Checks returned to our office by the bank for insufficient funds on your account will be charged back you. The amount of the check and the return check-processing fee of $25.00 will be due prior to rescheduling further appointments. 

There is a 3% surcharge on all credit card purchases (this does not include copays) which helps pay our Square processing fee.

Medication refills:

In order to ensure that your prescriptions for medications are written properly and that we know about all of the medicines you are taking, we ask that you bring all medication bottles to each clinic visit, including vitamins and supplements. If Dr. Henderson did not write for a specific prescription, we will not refill it without consent of that provider unless it treats your thyroid condition. For example, prescriptions for blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, and pain medicines cannot be refilled through our office. Please allow 72 hours for processing of all medication refills. Processing times may be extended if a refill is requested after hours or on a Friday. Our website will be updated if Dr. Henderson will be out of the office.  If you need a refill or have another issue, please settle these matters 72 hours prior to her departure to allow for reasonable processing times.

Emergency services:

Any calls after regular business hours need to go through your PCP’s on-call service. Emergencies after hours should be seen and evaluated at an urgent care or emergency room. Call 9-1-1 and/or go the ER for, including but not limited to chest pain, shortness of breath, dizziness, trauma, and other types of severe illness. Non-emergent requests for medicine refills, clinic appointments, or other patient questions will be addressed at your upcoming clinic appointment or by phone. We will strive to answer questions and refill appropriate medications within 72 hours of notification, excluding holidays, times of physician travel/illness/medical leave, or natural disaster.

Hospital Care:

As a private physician, Dr. Henderson does not admit patients to the hospital and does not take hospital call. 

Disability

The Charleston Thyroid Center does not fill out any disability forms or handicap placards, even if you believe that this is related to your thyroid disease. Your Primary Care Physician must fill out these forms if they deem it appropriate.

Narcotic & Controlled Substances Policy

The Charleston Thyroid Center does not prescribe narcotic medicines. If we prescribe a controlled substance (such as a weight loss medicine), patients by law must be seen in person every 3 months.  We will check the online database to ensure you are not receiving prescriptions from multiple providers and that you are filling your medication properly. We do not refill “lost” or “stolen” controlled medications for any reason. If the patient attempts to intentionally manipulate office personnel or lie about these particular medications, they will be dismissed from the practice.

Patient Record Faxing / Sending

We send medical records by fax, HIPAA-compliant e-mail, or mail. We do our very best to ensure that records are sent to the correct place, however there is always a possibility that this information may be unintentionally misdirected or breached.

Pediatric Patients

Dr. Henderson is an internal medicine physician, and therefore only treats patients 13 years and older. Rare exceptions are made down to 10 years old, but must be approved on a case-by-case basis. For younger patients, we suggest making an appointment with a pediatric endocrinologist.  Without exception, a parent or legal guardian must accompany ALL patients who are younger than 18 years old.