Cancellations

If you are ever unable to keep your appointment, please call our office at 334-654-5080 to reschedule. Promptly rescheduling will help our clinic flow and will help other patients who may need to schedule an appointment during the time that would be made available by your cancellation.

 

Late to Appointments

Efficient scheduling is important to us. If you are more than 15 minutes late to your scheduled appointment, you will not be seen. We will do our best to reschedule you to the next available appointment, which may not be that same day. If you know in advance that you will be late, please call our office and we will make arrangements that do not disrupt our clinic flow.

 

Missed Appointments

It is important that you show up for your scheduled appointments or cancel in advance if you are not able to attend. Anderson Family Care reserves the right to charge a fee in the case of repeated missed appointments. After the second missed appointment, a fee of $25 will be charged and must be collected before the next appointment will be made. After continued missed appointments, you may be dismissed from the practice. In the case of children who repeatedly miss scheduled appointments (especially well-child/developmental/immunization appointments), Anderson Family Care reserves the right to request assistance from local agencies to ensure that any issues hindering the child from getting to clinic are addressed.

 

Calls During Business Hours

Please review our clinic hours. We will do our best to answer each phone call as it comes in to the office. We understand that there may be times when you will be given the option to leave a voicemail and we ask, if it is not urgent, that you leave a message. All voicemails left before 2pm on Monday-Thursday and before 12pm on Friday will be checked and returned before the end of that day. Voicemails left after these times will be checked and returned on the following day. Weekend voicemails will be returned on the next business day.

 

After-Hours Calls

You may call our office after hours if there is an urgent matter requiring you to speak to a member of our staff. You will be routed to an answering service that can page Dr. Anderson for urgent matters. Please note that no refill requests will be filled after hours or on weekends; we ask that you keep track of your medication counts and make these requests during office hours. No appointments will be made after hours or on weekends; we ask that you schedule appointments during office hours. If you have an after-hours emergency, we ask that you go to the emergency room! Do not call our office as there will be a delay in our getting back to you—please seek medical attention right away! Please note that overuse of the after-hours line for non-urgent matters may result in a fee.

 

Medication Refills

All appropriate medication refill requests will be filled within 24 hours of the request. Controlled medications will not be refilled without a visit to the office. Medications will not be refilled if you have not been seen at Anderson Family Care within the past 6 months. If you request an appropriate refill, you can assume that it will be sent to your pharmacy; you do not need to call our office to confirm, and we will not call you to say that it has been sent. We ask that you check the status of the prescription with your pharmacy before re-calling our office.

 

Controlled Substances

We adhere to state and national regulatory guidelines regarding the writing of prescriptions for controlled substances. As a board-certified physician, Dr. Anderson reserves the right to refuse to prescribe any medication or combination of medications that can be harmful or are not medically necessary. Patients prescribed controlled medications will be asked to sign and adhere to a controlled substance policy which includes urine drug testing.

 

Notification of Test Results

An attempt will be made to notify you within 24 hours of our receipt of your test results. Please give us time to review your results and call you. If your preferred communication is by phone, please ensure that we have an accurate number on file for you and if this number changes, please let us know. If your results are normal and you have elected to receive voicemails from our office, this information will be left in a message. If results require discussion, you will be asked to call our office. After 3 attempts, we will send a letter to the address on file, and you are then responsible for contacting our office. If you do not have test results within one week of the test, please call our office.

 

Account Balances

If you have an outstanding balance, you will receive written notification by mail or you can view this information on the Patient Portal. It is important that you clear your balances in a timely manner. We accept cash, personal checks, and all major credit cards. If you are unable to pay your balance, please call our office so payment arrangements can be made. Payment arrangements that are not adhered to are subject to fines and past due accounts may be turned over to our collection agency.

 

Returned Checks

If our bank returns your check for insufficient funds, we will ask that you come in to our office to pay the amount of the check plus a $35 fee, and the total must be paid by cash or card. We will not re-deposit returned checks through the bank. Returned checks that are not resolved within 2 weeks will be turned over to our collection agency.

 

Insurance

If you are insured, please be prepared to present your card at each visit. Insurance co-pays are due at the time of your appointment. Please inform our office immediately if your insurance changes.

 

Forms/Special Letters

Forms and requests for special letters should be presented to the clinic in a timely fashion. Please do not bring forms to clinic on the day they are due. In order to efficiently serve all patients, we will not stop clinic to complete forms. Please allow 5 days for all forms to be completed.

 

Use of Phones

We do kindly ask that you refrain from talking/interacting on your phone in the exam room during the clinic visit. Our staff will give you our full attention during the visit and we ask the same from our patients.

 

Use of Photography and Recording Devices

Recording of the clinical visit and taking photographs during the visit are not permitted, unless explicitly discussed and approved by a member of the staff beforehand.

 

Clinic Behavior

As much as we want Anderson Family Care to be a happy place, we understand that sometimes visits to the doctor can be stressful. We will always strive to be kind, courteous, and understanding, and we ask the same from you. Patients who disrupt our environment, either verbally or physically, will be promptly dismissed from our practice and local authorities may be called.