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Financial

We are contracted with many insurance plans/networks. We also accept BlueCare and PHP TennCare. As part of our contract with the insurance companies/Managed Care Organizations, we are obligated to collect all co-payments or co-insurance at the time of service. We are not allowed to charge these to your account.

Hamblen Pediatric Associates accepts cash, checks, Visa, Mastercard and Discover. A $30.00 returned check fee will be charged.

A 5% discount is given to patients who pay the bill in full at the time of service. If payment cannot be made at the time of service, financial arrangements must be made prior to the office visits.

Payment for all well child check-ups and immunizations must be made at the time of service.

Appointments

Appointments must be made for all services. The following is the policy for scheduling of appointments.

Urgent/Sick: It is the policy of Hamblen Pediatric to see acutely sick children the same day. Appointment times are given to reduce waiting time. It is extremely important that parents call the office as soon as possible to make an appointment. If you wish to see a particular physician/nurse practitioner we will try to accommodate your request. However, please understand that the particular physician may not be in the office that day or may already have a high volume of patients for the day and will be unable to see you. We will see your child however, it may be with a different physician.

Well Child Care/Physicals: Hamblen Pediatric follows the recommended well care schedule of the American Academy of Pediatrics. The physicians are staunch advocates of well child care. Appointments are available within 2-3 weeks. It is important to tell the appointment scheduler if your child is on any routine medications or has any problems or chronic illness so that there is a sufficient amount of time scheduled for the physician to care for your child.

Routine Appointments: Routine appointments (such as warts, ADD evaluations, non-urgent/acute illnesses are available within 2-3 weeks (if not sooner).

Walk-in patients will be triaged and an appointment time made. In order to serve our patients, appointments are seen before any walk in appointments UNLESS an emergency exists with the walk-in patient.

Hamblen Pediatric Associates requires 24 hour notice for cancellation of appointments.

Referrals

Many managed care organizations and TennCare require referrals by the Primary Care office/physician. A minimum of 72 hours' notice must be given before the appointment. Referrals will not be granted unless documentation exists in the patients chart of the need for the referral. This is the policy of the insurance company that you have contracted with.

Emergency Room

A Hamblen Pediatric Physician is on call 24 hours a day 365 days a year. If a patient goes to the emergency room without speaking to a physician, a referral will not be given. The only exception to this rule is in the case of a life threatening incident or an accident.

Forms/Medical Record Copies

We ask that all forms be brought to your appointment for completion. If you are unable to bring the form with you, please plan on leaving the form for a minimum of 3 days. A charge may be made if you need the form immediately.

A medical record authorization must be completed prior to Hamblen Pediatric releasing copies of medical records. In accordance with Tennessee law, a $20.00 charge is made for up to 40 pages. After 40 pages, there is a charge of $ .25 per page to have copies.

If you wish for your medical record to be transferred directly to another physician, there will not be a charge. Medical records will be copied within 10 days of receipt of request.

If a former patient requests a copy of their medical record or any part of their record and it is not in the active charts, there will be a $10.00 retrieval fee to get the chart out of storage in addition to any other fee that may be charged.