Consent – Who Can Accompany Patient Into Exam Room

• If you are being seen thru Worker’s Comp, we will only allow the patient in the exam room.  If a NCM or Adjustor wants to meet with Dr. Athni, they will need to schedule a separate appointment with the front office.
• If you are an adult and are being seen thru your private insurance or Medicare or Tricare, we will allow your spouse into the exam room.
• BUT, for anyone else, we will need a notarized Medical Power-of-Attorney (Medical POA) stating the third-party is allowed to be involved in the patient’s care.  This would include friends or a parent of a patient or an adult child of a patient.
• This is a standard practice in Psychiatric offices.  Although we are not treating Psychiatric illnesses, many of our patients have cognitive and neurodegenerative issues.  To make sure decisions are being made in the best interest of the patient, we require such a POA.  Even if you do not have any issues which involve your cognitive abilities, we have one policy for all patients.
• We hope you understand the rationale for this policy.  We are merely trying to make sure unauthorized people (who may not have the patient’s best interest) are not involved in medical decisions.

Scheduling Appointments

• We are a “referral only” office.  We require a referral from your primary care physician.
• As soon as our office receives your referral, we will first verify your insurance benefits to make sure we are part of your insurance network. (Please look at “Insurance Networks” on the web site to see our network affiliation.)
• We request you forward a copy of your medical records prior to scheduling your initial appointment.  We will review your medical records before an appointment is given.  We reserve the right to NOT schedule an appointment – after reviewing your medical records, we may decide we will not be able to participate in your medical care.
• Our office staff will then contact you directly to schedule the initial appointment.
• We try to see patients within 2 weeks of receiving the referral, but sometimes new appointments can delayed upto 8-12 weeks.
• We normally see new patients on Thursdays, all day.
• If the appointment involves a Work-Comp issue, we must obtain a written approval from the WC adjuster prior to scheduling the appointment.
• We request ALL new patients to arrive at the office at least 1 hour BEFORE their scheduled appointment.
• This will ensure that all paperwork issues are completed before your scheduled appointment time. Otherwise, your consultation time will be delayed.
• Be prepared to spend 2-3 hours in the office as we conduct a very detailed neurological evaluation, consisting of:
  • (1) an initial evaluation with an upper level medical student or medical resident, followed by
  • (2) a prolonged private discussion (sometimes 45 min to 1 hour) between Dr. Athni and the student / resident, followed by
  • (3) another detailed assessment by Dr. Athni.

Medication Refills

What medications will be refilled?

• Our office will only refill those medications we have prescribed, AND only if you are an active patient in our practice.

How many refills will be prescribed?

• During your office visit, we will try to prescribe medications with enough refills to last you until your next office visit
• If you cancel your follow up appointment, we will NOT refill your medications until you are re-evaluated by Dr. Athni
• If you choose not to re-schedule your appointment, you should consider obtaining all further refills thru your primary care physician

How are refills processed??

• We normally refill medications during the office visit
• We send all medication refills thru eRx (electronic prescribing system)
• The eRx system minimizes human error, and reduces prescription filling time
• Once we send an eRx prescription, an eRx is typically processed and filled within 1 hour by most pharmacies

“Calling in” prescriptions

• To minimize errors, we will NOT “call in” a refill medications
• If your pharmacy does not accept electronic prescriptions, we will give you a hand-written prescription during your office visit for you to hand-carry

Narcotics Pain Medications and Controlled Medications

• Many pain medications are “controlled” and monitored by the DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) to minimize fraud and abuse
• We will NOT prescribe or refill any controlled narcotic pain medications
• We WILL prescribed non-narcotic, controlled medications.
• These medications will ONLY prescribed and refilled during a face-to-face office visit

Auto Accident Evaluations

• If your medical issues are related to a recent motor vehicle accident, we will not wait for payment from your auto insurance or from your attorney.
• You will be responsible for full payment of any and all charges incurred at our office.
• You can file the claim with your auto-insurance company.
• We will NOT accept a delayed payment from “3rd party liability” benefits as a result of any auto accidents.
• We will NOT accept any “liens” or “promissory notes” from your attorney.