Information
Family Health Associates is a team of health care providers and support personnel dedicated to creating and maintaining a caring health service environment for our patients and the community. We are a unit of Family Care Network.
OFFICE HOURS
Monday through Thursday 8:00 A.M. - 8:00 P.M.
Friday hours are 8 A.M. - 5 P.M.
Saturday office hours begin at 9 A.M. For acute illness care, and continue until all needed patient visits are completed.
We ask that you call ahead and make an appointment with us if you need to be seen.
We remain open during the lunch hour during the week.
PHONE CALLS
We begin answering incoming calls at 8:30 A.M. During office hours, when our front office staff receives calls, they will help you directly or route your calls to a nurse, physician or other staff member as needed. If you must speak with one of us please give the receptionist your name and the phone number where you can be reached during the day or early evening. We will make every effort to return your non-emergency phone calls by the end of the same working day. Contact your pharmacy first for all medication refills. Our schedule dictates that we must deal with non-emergency calls without interrupting the care of our patients in the office and responding to each call as it is received. If your problem is an emergency, please let the receptionist know and a staff member will assist you as soon as possible.
CANCELLATIONS
If you fail to keep your first appointment without canceling 24 hours in advance you will not be able to be a patient of Family Health Associates. We ask that you call us 24 hours in advance to cancel any appointment, unless an emergency occurs. Your early cancellation allows us to adjust our schedule to maintain punctuality. A late cancellation creates a scheduling problem for our staff. If you fail to come to your appointment without notifying us we have no opportunity to adjust our schedule. This is expensive for us, and as a result, we must assess a $25.00 charge for missed appointments. Three such "no shows" within two years may require us to ask you to leave our practice, since our appointment time and the time for our other patients is valuable. We ask your cooperation in scheduling routine visits such as Pap smears, school, camp and sports physicals and yearly checkups at least six weeks in advance.
NOTICE OF INFORMATION PRACTICES
We keep a record of the health care services that we provide you. You may ask your doctor to see that record. You may also ask us to correct that record. We will not disclose your record to others unless you direct us to do so, or unless the law authorizes or compels us to do so. A copy of the medical record will be made and provided free to another health care provider when that is needed for your care. A copy for your personal use will incur a charge for handling and copying.
AFTER HOURS PHONE CALLS
When the office is closed, our doctors volunteer on a rotating basis to take emergency medical calls, and they are available through our answering service by calling (360) 715-2427. Please use the answering service only for urgent or emergency problems.
EMERGENCIES
Emergency problems will be seen as a priority and will be treated as quickly as possible. A life-threatening emergency requires prompt attention in an Emergency Room. Call 911 for assistance or go directly to St. Joseph Hospital, which has 24-hour physician coverage. Infrequently, emergencies arise which take one of us away from the office. We realize this can create inconveniences for you and your family, but we are sure that if you had a medical emergency you would want us to be with you in the hospital. At times we regretfully must interrupt office visits to discuss ongoing patient care with our staff, other physicians, and the hospital staff. We appreciate your understanding, and we will try to keep the interruptions to a minimum.
SERVICES
Our services include women's health care, care of the newborn, pediatrics (children's care), and office surgical procedures such as suturing of lacerations, skin lesion removal, biopsies, casting fractures, vasectomies, and circumcisions. We also assist in surgery. Counseling and guidance through all types of complex health care is always provided. Doctors Ed Bloom, Jessica Bloom, Deborah Hall and Miriam Shapiro provide prenatal and obstetric care for expectant mothers.
FEES
We set our fees to cover our costs of providing our services, and try to be sure that they are competitive with other rates within our community. We expect payment at the time of service unless you are insured by one of the companies that we bill directly. Please read our financial policy for further information on this. Upon payment, we will supply you with an itemized billing so you can promptly bill your insurance company for reimbursement. Patients who have Northwest Washington Medical Bureau or Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound should present their ID cards at each visit.
If your policy has a co-payment we ask that you be prepared to pay this when you are seen. We ask our DSHS patients to supply us with current coupons for each month they are seen. We accept assignment on Medicare for all of our Medicare patients.
We believe that an insurance contract is between the patient and the insurance company. We will be glad to discuss any billing problems with you. If you have a problem paying your bill please do not hesitate to talk to us about it. If your child comes to our office alone, please be certain that they have current insurance information with them. We look forward to serving you with our quality health care, delivered by a well-trained, professional and courteous staff. If you have suggestions about how we can better serve you, please let us know. If you have further questions about any of our policies, please ask the receptionist.