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Welcome to Sparrow Family Health Services - Eastside. Family medicine is an additional
specialty of primary care. As family practitioners, we have completed three years of
specialized training to provide care for you and your family. All of our physicians are
Board Certified in Family Medicine.
We
offer services for each member of the family; Pediatrics (care of children), Gynecology (female
reproduction system), adolescents, adults, and senior patients. We also offer specialties
such as Osteopathic Manipulation Therapy, flexible sigmoidoscopies, vasectomies, acne/skin
lesion evaluation and removal/skin biopsies, and some fracture care.
Appointments
For appointments and general questions, please phone 517.364.8686 during regular business
hours.
Patients are seen by appointment only. By telling our receptionist the nature of your problem,
she can schedule the correct amount of time with the doctor.
We will do our best to be on time and honor your appointment; however due to the nature of
family medicine, delays may arise. Although we are not able to contact each patient if
delays occur, you are welcome to call to find out if your doctor is running on schedule.
If you discover you will be late for your appointment PLEASE CALL! If you arrive 20
minutes late or more you may be asked to reschedule or wait until you can be seen without
inconvenience to those arriving on time.
Please do not ask that other members of the family be worked in at the time of your scheduled
appointment. This will make adherence to our schedule difficult and is not fair to the patient
with the following appointment. If they are sick, please call before coming to see if an
appointment is available. Should a situation arise where immediate treatment is necessary,
every effort will be made to work the patient in at the earliest possible time.
Cancellations
If you have to cancel or reschedule your appointment, please let us know as soon as possible.
This courtesy will allow other patients to be seen and will keep costs down. A 24-hour notice
would be greatly appreciated.
Failure to show up for an appointment is unacceptable and may result in charge or dismissal
from the practice.
After Hours
If you need to contact the doctor for an urgent problem during non-working hours, weekends, or
holidays, please phone the office and the answering machine will instruct you accordingly.
Telephone Calls and Messages
During business hours, your call will be taken by a nurse or a medical assistant. If your
problem cannot be taken care of at that time, a message will be taken and you will be contacted
as soon as possible.
Prescriptions/Refills
Many diseases and conditions have similar symptoms, therefore we do not treat patients or
prescribe new medications over the telephone. We do not refill prescriptions issued by
physicians outside our office.
Prescriptions can be renewed during office visits. It is always a good idea to bring all your
medications, or a list of them with you to each visit. Point out those which need refilling
to the nurse or medical assistant before you see the doctor.
Prescription refills for long term medications can be handled by calling our office during
regular office hours, Monday through Friday. We also ask that you please call our office
before you are completely out of your medications so we can decide if the medication should
be continued or if you may need to be seen by your physician before refilling. Refill
requests received by telephone are called to the pharmacy of your choice within 48 hours
Monday through Friday. Pain medications must be refilled during daytime hours - they cannot
be refilled on nights and weekends.
X-ray and Laboratory
For your convenience, lab and x-ray facilities are located on the first floor of our building.
Due to the continuous and rapidly changing insurance coverage, it is impossible for our office
to follow every patient's policy. Before the scheduling of your appointment (i.e. blood work,
x-rays, MRI, etc.), please review your policy to determine where you should schedule these
procedures in order to have them covered by your insurance carrier. It is your responsibility
to know the benefits of your policy.
Fees and Insurance
We participate with many major insurance carriers including Medicare Blue Cross Blue Shield
of Michigan, Physicians Health Plan (PHP), Sparrow Physicians Health Plan (SPHN), Private
Health Care Systems (PHCS), Blue Care Network (Health Central), and many others. Please ask
our receptionist if we participate with your plan.
If we participate with your plan, we will file the claim for services for you. However, we do
expect you to pay for co-pays and non-covered services at the time of the visit. Please be
aware of what your plan does and does not cover. This information may be obtained from your
employer or insurance carrier.
If we do not participate with your health plan, we ask that payment be made at the time of
service. You will receive a copy of your "encounter form" that may be submitted to your
carrier for reimbursement.
We are committed to providing quality health care to all patients. We do, however, expect
payment for services received. We accept cash, checks, Visa and MasterCard. If you are
unable to provide payment at the time of service, please discuss other payment options with
our office manager ahead of time.
If you have questions regarding your claims or statements, you may contact our billing office
at 517.364.6220.
Hospital Services
Since we are affiliated with Sparrow Hospital and most of our insurances utilize Sparrow, our
inpatient needs are handled by Sparrow most of the time. Hospital stays these days are
generally very intense, shorter, and require close contact with your team of doctors. In the
event you need hospitalization, we will arrange for the appropriate specialist to manage your
care. We feel it is in your best interest to have 24-hour coverage with in-house doctors while
you are hospitalized to best manage your care. We will be notified of all admissions,
discharges, and we will be informed of your hospital progress throughout your hospital stay. Click here for Sparrow Hospitalist Program information.
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