DermatologyP.C.
General Information
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Office
Location
Main Office
6000 University Avenue
Suite 450
West Des Moines, Iowa 50266
Telephone Numbers
Main (515) 241-2000
Billing & Insurance (515) 241-2010
Fax (515) 241-2005
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Our Ankeny Location
800 East 1st Street
Ankeny, IA 50021
Telephone Numbers
Main (515) 963-9639
Fax (515) 964-4548
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Office Hours
Our main office is open Monday through Thursday 8:00 am to 5:00 pm and on Friday from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm. We firmly believe in the value of your time and appreciate your choosing Dermatology, P.C. for your dermatologic care. We will do everything in our power to meet your appointment time as closely as possible. Occasionally however, the patients preceding your appointment may require more time than we planned for, or an emergency may cause a delay. If a delay causes a problem with your schedule, please notify our Patient Services Representatives and your appointment will be re-scheduled.
Our Ankeny office is open Tuesday and Thursday from 8:00am to 5:00pm and on Friday from 8:00am to 3:00pm.
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Emergencies
If you have questions concerning your situation or follow-up care, we ask that you call during business hours. However, if an emergency arises at a time other than when Dermatology, P.C. is open (non-office hours and/or over holidays), our answering service will direct emergency calls to the physician on call. Please try to have all pertinent information on hand when calling either during office hours or to our answering service.
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Prescription Refills
If you need a prescription
refill, please contact your pharmacist directly. If a refill is
not indicated on the original prescription, the pharmacy will
contact us on our pharmacy phone line.
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Phone Calls
To provide our patients with
optimal care, we try to return phone calls at the end of the
morning and the end of the day. This gives us time to locate and
review your medical records. Please leave all numbers where you
can be reached during the day with the receptionist when you
call.
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Hospital Consults
Our physicians will make hospital
consults for you or your family members at the request of your
primary care physician. It is not possible, however, to make
daily calls to several hospitals. Unless it is an emergency,
requests will be grouped and consults will be made within 10 days
of the request. Please inform your primary care physician if you
wish to have a family member present when our physician performs
the consult.
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Payment Policy
In an effort to contain health care related costs, full payment of all office visit charges or insurance co-payments are due in full at the time of service. We accept cash, checks, MasterCard, Visa, American Express, and a variety of Debit Card issuers.
For long-term treatment, extensive surgical procedures, or surgery center treatments, patient payment responsibility must be determined, and payment arrangements approved by our billing department prior to treatment.
All of our cosmetic services are to be considered non-medically necessary procedures and therefore do not qualify for insurance billing and payment. There are a few laser procedures that may qualify on a limited basis so your situation can be discussed with you prior to treatment to determine patient payment responsibility.
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Insurance
Dermatology, P.C. participates
with and automatically files claims for many insurance plans. All
copayments for these plans are required at the time of service.
If you are unable to provide us
with proof of insurance coverage at the time of your visit, full
payment is required for all services rendered.
If you are a member of an HMO,
PCP or other limited access insurance plan, all approval and
preauthorized requirements must be met prior to treatment.
Charges for services rendered without the required approval are
the patient's responsibility. Please contact our bookkeeping
department (241-2010) for assistance or verification of
authorization.
We participate in the following
health insurance programs:
- Blue Cross Blue Shield of Iowa
- Medicaid
- Medicare
- Most Private Plans
For Billing & Insurance
assistance call (515) 241-2010.
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Privacy Practices
This notice describes how medical information about you may be used and disclosed and how you can get access to this information. Please review it carefully.
The Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) is a federal program that requires that all medical records and other individually identifiable health information used or disclosed by us in any form, whether electronically, on paper, or orally, are kept properly confidential. This act gives you, the patient, significant new rights to understand and control how your health information is used. “HIPAA” provides penalties for covered entities that misuse personal health information.
As required by “HIPAA”, we have prepared this explanation of how we are required to maintain the privacy of your health information and how we may use and disclose your health information.
We may use and disclose your medical records only for each of the following purposes: treatment, payment, and health care operations.
- TREATMENT means providing, coordinating, or managing health care and related services by one or more health care providers. An example of this would include a physical examination.
- PAYMENT means such activities as obtaining reimbursement for services, confirming coverage, billing or collection activities, and utilization review. An example of this would be sending a bill for your visit to your health insurance company for payment.
- HEALTH CARE OPERATIONS includes the business aspects of running our practice, such as conducting quality assessment and improvement activities, auditing functions, cost-management analysis and customer service. An example of this would be an internal quality assessment review.
We may also create and distribute de-identified health information by removing all references to individually identifiable information.
We may contact you to provide appointment reminders or information about treatment alternatives or other heath-related benefits and services that may be of interest to you.
Any other uses and disclosures will be made only with your written authorization. You may revoke such authorization only in writing and we are required to honor and abide by that written request, except to the extent that we have already taken actions relying on your authorization.
You have the following rights with respect to your protected health information, which you can exercise by presenting a written request to the Privacy Officer:
- The right to request restrictions on certain uses and disclosures of protected health information, including those related to disclosures to family members, other relatives, close personal friends, or any other personal identified by you. We are, however, not required to agree to a requested restriction. If we do agree to a restriction, we must abide by it unless you agree in writing to remove it.
- The right to reasonable requests to receive confidential communications of protected health information from us by alternate means or at alternate locations.
- The right to inspect and copy your protected health information.
- The right to amend your protected health information.
- The right to receive an accounting of disclosures or protected health information.
- The right to obtain a paper copy of this notice upon request.
We are required by law to maintain the privacy of your protected health information and to provide you with notice of our legal duties and privacy practices with respect to protected health information.
This notice is effective as of APRIL 13, 2003 and we are required to abide by the terms of the Notice of Privacy Practices currently in effect. We reserve the right to change the terms of our Notice of Privacy Practices and to make the notice provisions effective for all protected health information that we maintain. We will post, and you may request, a written copy of a revised Privacy Practices from our office.
You have recourse if you feel that your privacy protections have been violated. You have the right to file a written complaint with our office, or with the Department of Health & Human Services, Office of Civil Rights, about violations of the provisions of this notice, or the policies and procedures of our office. We will not retaliate against you for filing a complaint.
Please contact us for more information:
Privacy Officer
Dermatology, P.C.
6000 University Ave, Suite 450
West Des Moines, IA 50266
For more information about HIPAA or to file a complaint:
Department of Health & Human Services
Office of Civil Rights
200 Independence Ave, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20201
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Copyright © 1997-2008. Dermatology P.C. All Rights Reserved.