Office Communication Policy

Office Communication Policy:

Although we truly understand that it may be more convenient for you to reach us over the phone, many patients do not realize the volume of phone calls that are received and that each one must be documented and tracked within a medical practice. Because we are legally obligated to track every time we communicate with a patient, what information is delivered and when the patient reviews (or doesn’t review) that information our office has adopted an official communication policy. Please review the policy below to understand how our office will communicate with you.

The support desk is not staffed 24 hours a day 7 days a week however the knowledge base is always available. Our staff reviews cases (messages) that are generated between the hours of 9 am-4pm Monday-Thursday except when the office is closed for holidays or staff development. If you initiate a case on the support desk instead of calling our office we may respond to you requesting that you call the office for further assistance. Also the early bird gets the worm so we make a priority to review cases placed prior to 12 pm the same day (latest possible 2 business days) and cases placed after 12 pm may be queued for review until the next business day.

● We reserve the right to return your communication in the most efficient way possible for the office which may be phone, support desk email or portal. The doctor DOES NOT respond to portal cases by phone and if your portal cases include a question that requires input by the doctor you will have to schedule a followup appointment. If you have any issues or complaints when calling please ask your phone operator for your document number for your case so that you may refer back to it if you have to reach back out to our office. We do attempt to respond to all messages in the most timely manner possible however please remember the level of volume of communications and be patient with us if we do not respond right away as sometimes it can take time to research, review and respond to your questions. In the case that your care is terminated with our office your portal will close and we would recommend that you contact us directly by phone or via our website @ www.crossroadsobgyn.com.

● If you experience an emergency after hours please do not submit a case to the portal or support desk but proceed to the nearest emergency room or urgent care.

● If you have not had a response to non urgent medical or any billing issue within 48 business hours we do encourage you to call and notify our operators. If you have not had a response to any urgent medical issues within 24 business hours please call and notify our operators. In certain cases your case may be triaged to a patient concierge if it is determined by our office (in our discretion) that a return phone call is warranted.

● Patient portal access: Please understand the patient portal is a service that our office pays for on your behalf (not your insurance or your visit charges) therefore the patient portal is only open when you are in active patient status. In the case that you notify our office that you are transferring care, if we receive a medical record request for all records for continuing care, or if you are terminated for the practice for any reason and that includes failure to follow billing policies your patient portal will close immediately. If you require a copy of your medical records after your portal has closed you can request a copy of your records by completing a medical record release form and faxing it to our office. Fees for medical record requests start at $25 and are dependent on what is being requested and the size of your chart. You may find more information about medical record requests on our website at www.crossroadsobgyn.com under record request.

We are unable to respond to inquiries regarding patient care and billing concerns via email unfortunately secondary to privacy restrictions. You may receive encrypted or secured outgoing email communications from our office in the case that we need to send you documentation related to your care; however , we cannot respond back to any questions from an encrypted email secondary to privacy restrictions. However you may always contact us online via the support desk or by calling our office at 832-415-0376. In certain cases we do reserve the right to communicate with you regarding certain documents (such as termination of care) via encrypted email. If you do receive an encrypted email from us your password to access your file will also be sent to you or we will call you to provide the password.

Remember medical services provided outside of the office visit (via support desk, patient portal or phone) are considered to be a billable service. In case you want to check to see if your insurance covers this service for you the CPT codes are 99358, 99421, 99422, and 99423. If this is a non-covered service for you and you request and receive service outside of a face to face in person visit then you will be directly responsible for those charges.

Please also note although we understand that it may be more convenient for you to discuss any abnormal results over the phone, unfortunately that is not our standard of care for this office. If you receive ANY abnormal results you will be recommended to schedule a followup to discuss your results.

We do not process refill requests that are not requested at the same time as your office visit. If you are a new patient we cannot process a refill request for a medication without either working up the problem or with your previous medical records. If you request a refill on a medication without one of these things we will not be able to honor your request. If you are an established patient and need a refill on your medication please schedule an appointment.

Your doctor is focused on your clinical care during your visit and NOT administrative issues.

If you have an administrative issue (concern about billing, communications, general office complaints, etc.) PLEASE DO NOT try to address this with the doctor during your visit so that we may maintain clinic flow. All of these issues should be directed to our office management which may be reached at 832-415-0376 or you may submit a support ticket to our support desk.

Although we can appreciate that going to the doctor’s office can be a frustrating process, our office has an official policy in place to prevent abuse of our office staff.

If it is documented by our staff that you or a party engaging with our office or office staff on behalf of you (for example a family member) are noted to be abusive to any of our staff or physician (i.e. yelling, cursing, perceived to be threatening, or physically abusive) when they are trying to communicate with you (by phone or in person) then you WILL be immediately terminated from our practice and referred to another practice to continue your care. We respect all of our patients and we expect the same respect in return when communicating with you and delivering your care.

Thank you for your understanding as we all work towards the goal of efficient communications for your healthcare