Dr. Duncan’s Practice Policies
Billing Policies
• Dr. Duncan’s office is a provider for a limited number of insurance companies. Patients are ultimately obligated to pay for all services rendered. Some services may not be covered by insurance.
Scheduling Your Appointment
• Our office tries to schedule appointments at your convenience and when time is available. In general, we try to schedule preschool children in the morning or early afternoon hours because they are fresher. Our early morning and late afternoon appointments are reserved for children who are receiving weekly or biweekly treatment. Interpretive conferences, new patients, and patients with three or more weeks between appointments will not be scheduled at these times. Unfortunately, our office does not offer evening appointments. We have found that children are often tired in the evening and not as responsive to treatment.
• When your child has an appointment during school hours, office staff will be happy to provide you with documentation of your child’s appointment to submit to your child’s school. Appointments for medical care are counted as excused absences.
• Our office will not book more than two therapy sessions in advance without approval.
Cancellations
• Since appointed times are reserved exclusively for each patient, we ask that you notify the office 48 hours (excluding holidays and weekends) in advance of your scheduled appointment time if you are unable to keep your appointment. My office staff are instructed to enforce a cancellation fee for cancellations that do not comply with these requirements. Please understand that another patient who needs our care could be scheduled if we have sufficient advance notice. We realize that unexpected things can happen but we ask for your assistance in this regard. Our schedules are set up weeks and sometimes months in advance; so if you need specific times for your appointments, please ask us. We will try our best to accommodate you. We recommend that parents set their re-care appointments on the day of their visit to avoid interruption in treatment and get desired appointment times.
• Additional information regarding our cancellation policy can be found in the Agreement for Professional Services. Thank you for your help.
Parent/Guardian Participation in Treatment
• Our office requires that parents or another adult remain on the premises during therapy sessions (unless your child is of driving age). Our office has found it is extremely important that parents/guardians actively participate in treatment. If you are unable to attend your child’s therapy session and have another adult accompany your child to the office, please understand Dr. Duncan cannot share treatment information with the accompanying adult without a signed written release on file. Dr. Duncan will further discuss your child’s treatment plan with you during your child’s first appointment. Because each child is different, we do not have a “fixed” treatment plan. Rather, treatment, including frequency and duration, is individualized to meet the needs of the particular child and family. For safety and privacy of all our patients, children who are not being treated should remain in the reception room unless invited to participate in treatment by Dr. Duncan.
• Please be in the waiting room when your child’s appointment is over. We cannot go looking for you in the parking lot or provide long-term supervision of your child.
Insurance Limitations
• Insurance will not cover certain services such as telephone calls, e-mails, conferences, transportation and travel, letters, services that are not deemed medically necessary by insurance (i.e., academic achievement testing), postage, etc. Patients are responsible for all expenses not covered by their insurance.
School Meetings, Depositions, and Trial Testimony
• Appointments for school meetings and litigation services must be reserved a minimum of seven business days in advance. Payment for these services must be paid in full upon scheduling. Additional information regarding Dr. Duncan’s fee for such services can be obtained from her Office Manager.
Phone Communications
• Please understand that Dr. Duncan sees patients daily. She cannot interrupt patient care to get on the phone unless it is an emergency, such as when a child is being admitted to a hospital. If you need to speak with her, please feel free to call and schedule an appointment. If you need to speak with Dr. Duncan right away (within a day or so), please communicate that to office staff so an appointment is made that meets your specific needs. Please understand that it is not appropriate for office staff to relay messages unless at your appointment Dr. Duncan specifically requests you call for a specific reason, which is rare. In these cases, Dr. Duncan will alert office staff to expect your call and to take appropriate action. Of course, in cases of emergencies, we encourage you to call the office so we can coordinate care.
Food and Drink
• Please do not bring food or drink in the office. In certain situations, such as when an evaluation (i.e., testing) is being performed and your child will be on the premises for an extended period of time, you are requested to bring a snack for a child. Office staff will contact you if this is the case. In those circumstances, we will provide an opportunity for your child to consume the snack in an appropriate place.