Scheduling Policy:
Please call our
office to schedule an appointment; 910-763-1555. When scheduling an appointment, our staff will do their best to accommodate
your schedule. Please understand however, there is a shortage of dermatologists, and many patients need to be seen.
Medication Refills:
It is standard of care
that a patient be seen once/year in order to continue getting medication refills. We will be happy to call in medications
for you as long as you maintain yearly or otherwise planned follow-up appointments.
Cancellation
Policy:
Please call our office 24 hours in advance if you are unable
to keep your appointment. If such notice is not given, you may incur a $25 fee. Another patient could use your time slot if
you are unable to come.
Referral Policy:
If you need a referral from your primary care doctor in order to see us or if you are being seen at our office at
the request of another doctor, we need to have the referral in our office PRIOR to your appointment.
Please contact the doctor's office two days before your appointment to be sure that they have sent us a consultation
request. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, but the consultation request provides information we need to assist
you with your skin problems and aids in processing your insurance claim.
Payment Policy:
Our office participates with most major insurance carriers. Please bring your insurance
cards to our office. If you do not bring your insurance card, you may be asked to sign a waiver which states you will be responsible
for payment of fees incurred during your visit.
We ask that patients take
care of insurance co-pays at the time of the visit. Please check your own co-pay requirements before you come. For your convenience,
we accept Cash, Check, Visa and Mastercard.
Self pay patients will be required to pay $80.00 at
check-in. If your visit exceeds $80.00, you will be asked to pay the remaining balance at check-out the day of your
visit.
Our billing department is willing to assist you with any problems
that may arise. If you need to arrange a payment plan, please call our office. If you have an outstanding balance, you must
pay your co-pay and establish a payment plan with our office prior to being seen again. Of course we will continue to provide
you with excellent dermatology care if you should have a dermatologic emergency.
Our choice for Pathology if you should need a biopsy:
If
a biopsy is performed while you are at our office, your tissue will be submitted to Coastal Carolina Pathology or Dermpath
Diagnostics in Cleveland, Ohio. The pathologists we use are board-certified dermatopathologists (specialists in looking
at skin under the microscope). If you choose to have your specimen sent to a different pathologist, please understand
that a general pathologist (one which is not a specialist in looking at skin under the microscope) will be assessing your
skin.
Pathology Billing Policy:
Under law passed in 2005 by
the North Carolina General Assembly (House Bill 636), we are required to disclose to all patients the price we pay for pathology
services and what we bill your insurance plan and you. At this time, most of our dermatopathology is purchased from
Richfield Laboratory of Dermatopathology (Dr. David Barron, Dr. Colleen Embi, Dr. Terrence Katona, Dr. Susan Kindel, Dr. Ruth
Kleier, Dr. Alice Roberts, Dr. Kay H. Seilstad, Dr. Alejandro Peralta Soler, Dr. Hemella L. Sweatt), a division of Dermpath
Diagnositics. Many local pathologists (who may not be dermatopathology trained) bill in excess of $150-$175 per specimen.
If special stains are required the bill can be much larger. We purchase dermatopathology from Dermpath Diagnositic for
$30 per specimen (CPT code 88305). We will bill your insurance company a flat fee of $150 per specimen in order
to cover our costs and prevent you from paying more than $150 per specimen. Occasionally, the dermatopathologist needs
to operform special stains in order to ascertain the diagnosis (CPT code 88312, etc). Dermpath Diagnostics charges us
$15 per extra stain. We bill your insurance $150 for each of these as well, as said by Medicare reimbursement. Our
billed charges are generally discounted further by the insurance company. For most biopsy specimens billed, we actually receive
between $47 and $108 in reimbursement per specimen from insurance plans.
