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 8:0oam- 8:0opm (Telephones are on from 8:30am-7:00pm)
Friday hours are 8:00am- 5:00pm (Telephones are on from 8:30am-5:00pm)
Saturday office hours begin at 9 A.M. For acute illness care, and continue until all needed patient visits are completed. (Telephones are on from 9:00am-12:00pm)
Please call ahead and make an appointment with us if you need to be seen.
We generally remain open during the lunch hour during the week. Occasionally, we close the office from 12:30-1:30pm for meetings or training. We are always here if you need to stop in. If you call us and leave a messge we will return it the same day.
PHONE CALLS
We answer the phones from 8:30am to 7:30pm Monday-Thursday, 8:30am-5:00pm on Fridays and 8:30am-12:00pm on Saturdays. If you are having an emergency please call 911. During office hours, when our front office staff receives calls, they will help you directly or route your calls. Since we are seeing patients during the day, often the clinical assitant or provider you wish to talk to will be unavailabe. 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. 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 urgent, please let the receptionist know and a staff member will assist you as soon as possible.
MEDICATION REFILLS
Contact your pharmacy first for all medication refills and allow us three (3) business days to complete the request. We will be happy to fax a refill request to your mail-order pharmacy if they fax us a request. Our fax number is 360-647-0882. We are not able to call your mail-order pharmacy on your behalf or except information from you to contact your mail-order pharmacy.
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, per 15 minutes, of a missed appointments. Three such "no shows" within two years may require us to ask you to leave our practice. 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.
Family Care Network also has an Urgent Care Clinic for after hours and weekend urgent visits.
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 the Emergency Department at PeaceHealth St Joseph Medical Center, 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 adult medicine, women's health care, care of the newborn, pediatrics (children's care), hosptial 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, Miriam Shapiro and Rodney Anderson 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.
Please be prepared to show your insurance card(s) and a photo ID at each date of service.
You may receive a 10% dicount if you do not have insurance and can pay in full on the date of service. If you are unable to pay in full we request that you set up payment arangements with our bookkeeper while you are in the office. We ask that you make a good faith payment on the date of service.
Co-payments are due on the date of service. Co-payments that are not paid on the date of service will be assessed an additional $20.00 handling and billing fee.
We ask our DSHS patients to bring their Provider One card to each visit.
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.
The insurance carriers that we are currently contracted with are:
Aetna, CHPW (for OB patients Only), CIGNA, Crime Victims L&I (State and Federal), DSHS, Essence, First Choice Health, First Health, Great West Healthcare ( unless there is a PHCS logo-that is non-contracted), Group Health Cooperative (including MedAdvantage), Medicare, Molina Heathcare, Out of state BCBS Plans, Premera Blue Cross, Railroad Medicare, Regence Blue Shield (including MedAdvantage but not Healthy Options) and Uniform Medical.
If you do not see your insurance listed above, call us to verify if we are contracted with the plan you are on.
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.